CHRISTIAN  TRUTH 


MODERN    OPINION". 


SETES"    SERMONS 


rREACIIED    IN    NEW-YORK    BV 


CLERGYME^f  OF  THE  PR0TESTA^7  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH. 


NEW-YORK 

THOMAS    ^WHITTAKKR, 

2  Bible  House. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1874, 

By  THOMAS  WIIITTAKER, 
in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


PEEFACE. 


The  following  Course  of  Sermons  was  given  the 
last  winter,  under  the  auspices  of  an  association  of 
clergymen  in  the  Episcopal  Church.  There  will 
be  found  such  an  order  in  the  topics,  and  such  es- 
sential agreement  in  the  line  of  Christian  thought, 
as  to  give  them  place  in  one  volume ;  yet  each  au- 
thor has  freely  written  his  own  convictions,  and  is 
alone  responsible  for  his  sermon.  It  is  hoped  that 
the  publication  may  do  somewhat  toward  that  har- 
mony of  Christian  faith  with  science,  which  is  no 
dream,  but  one  of  the  most  real  aims  of  all  scholars 
in  our  one-sided  time. 

New- York,  October  1st,  1874. 


GOISTTEI^TS. 


PAGE 

The  Christian  Doctrine  of  Providence.  By  C.  S. 
Henry,  D.D 9 

The  Christian  Doctrine  of  Prayer.  By  Hugli  Miller 
Thompson,  D.D 43 

Moral  Responsibility  and  Physical  Law.  By  E.  A. 
Wasliburn,  D.D G9 

The  REL.A.TI0N  op  Miracles  to  the  Christian  Faith. 
By  J.  H.  Rylance,  D.D 101 

The  Oneness  op  Scripture.  By  "William  R.  Hunting- 
ton, D.D 137 

Immortality.     By  Rt.  Rev.  T.  M.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D 163 

Evolution  and  a  Personal  Creator.  By  Jolin  Cotton 
Smith,  D.D 189 


THE 

CHRISTIAN  DOCTRmE  OF  PROYIDEJICE. 


BY 

C.  S.  IIENEY,  D.D., 

Delivered  in  Calvary  Church,  New-York. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 


"  The  Lord  liatli  prepared  His  throne  in  tlie  lieavens  ;  and 
His  kingdom  ruletli  over  all." — Psalm  103  :  19. 

My  Beetheen  :  The  Cliristian  idea  of  Providence 
has  its  gromid  in  the  Christian  idea  of  God  as  an  in- 
finite, self-existent,  spiritual  Being — j^ersonal,  intel- 
ligent, and  free— distinct  from  Xature,  before  Na- 
ture, and  above  jSTaturc. 

There  are  three  distinct  conceptions  of  the  Divine 
Activity  which  rest  in  this  ground — ^namely,  God  as 
Creator,  God  as  Upholder,  and  God  as  Orderer. 

These  three  conceptions  hold  inwardly  together  ; 
l)ut  the  latter  is  the  special  conception  of  Divine 
Providence — God  as  Orderer. 

The  Christian  idea  is  that  the  same  power  which 
created  and  which  upholds  the  universe  is  the  ulti- 
mate cause  of  all  the  changes,  all  the  events  that 
come  to  pass  in  the  universe  ;  that  His  supreme 
will  is  eternally  active  in  the  ordering  of  every 
thing ;  that  nothing  comes  by  chance,  nothing  by 


10      THE  CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

any  fatality  or  necessity  outside  of  God  ;  that  the 
history  of  the  universe  is  one  great  eternal  drama, 
of  which  God  is  at  once  the  Poet  and  the  Manager, 
and  which  is  for  ever  unfolding  itself  under  His  all- 
seeing  eye,  His  ever-watchful  superintendence,  and 
His  suj)reme  control. 

This  is  the  Christian  idea  of  God's  Providence. 

Atheism  subverts  this  idea  by  denying  its  ground 
in  the  being  of  God.  If  there  be  no  God,  there 
can,  of  course,  be  no  Providence.  This  every  one 
sees  at  once.  But  the  converse  of  this — that  if 
there  be  no  Providence,  there  can  be  no  God  in  any 
proper  sense  of  the  word — is  not  at  once  so  clearly 
seen.     Yet  it  is  equally  true. 

11.  I  do  not  propose  to  go  into  a  confutation 
of  atheism.  For  the  special  purpose  of  this  dis- 
course, it  would  be  a  needless  taking  up  of  time. 
I  speak  now  only  to  such  as,  along  with  myself, 
believe  that  there  is  a  Living  Personal  God,  the 
Creator  of  the  universe.  I  assume  the  existence 
of  such  a  God  as  the  rational  basis  for  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine  of  Providence. 

And  1  say  at  the  outset,  that  the  notions  of 
those  who  admit  the  existence  of  such  a  God,  and 
yet  deny  the  Christian  representation  of  God's  ever- 
active  superintendence,  direction,  and  control  of  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.      11 

M-liolc  course  of  events  in  the  universe,  seem  to  me 
quite  as  incompatible  with  any  satisfactory  rational 
explanation  of  the  universe  as  the  naked  atheism 
which  says  there  is  no  God  at  all,  or  the  pantheistic 
materialism  which  identities  God  with  the  universe 
— making  Him  an  impersonal,  dead  God-no-God. 
In  effect,  what  sort  of  a  God  is  one  that  creates  a 
universe  over  which  He  does  not  exert  a  constant, 
all-ordering  control  ?  Is  the  idea  of  such  a  God 
really  any  better  than  the  old  Stoic  idea  of  Fate  ? 
Is  the  contemplation  of  such  a  God  at  all  satisfac- 
tory to  the  demands  of  the  human  reason,  or  to  the 
wants  of  the  human  heart  ?  This  I  am  sure  no  one 
can  maintain.  And  I  am  ecpially  sure  that  the  con- 
ception of  a  universe  perpetually  watched  over, 
cared  for,  and  controlled  by  the  infinite  power,  in- 
telligence, wisdom,  and  love  of  a  Living  Personal 
God,  is  the  only  one  that  completely  satisfies  the 
needs  of  the  human  reason  and  of  the  human  heart. 

III.  But  it  is  objected  that  it  is  difficult  and 
even  impossible  to  harmonize  such  a  conception 
with  what  is  taken  to  be  a  pre-established  course 
of  things,  and  particularly  with  what  are  called  the 
Laws  of  l^ature. 

But  laws  can  not  establish  themselves,  can  not 
execute  themselves.    • 


12      THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTKINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

What  is  Law  ?  Is  it  any  thing  that  exists  by  it- 
self— any  thing  that  has  its  ground  in  itself  alone  'i 
'No.  Law  is  a  purely  relative  term.  It  relates  to 
the  idea  of  Force.  In  its  highest  generic  concep- 
tion, Law  is  an  established  Hule  for  the  working  of 
a  Force.  The  laws  of  the  universe  are  the  rules  ac- 
cording to  which  the  forces  of  the  universe  j)roduce 
the  phenomena  of  the  universe.  The  primary  rela- 
tion of  the  laws  is  not  to  the  phenomena,  but  to  the 
forces  which  produce  the  phenomena. 

It  is  quite  noticeable,  by  the  way,  how  the  phy- 
sical science  of  our  day  runs  out  into  the  assump- 
tion of  forces.  I  do  not  object  to  this  ;  far  other- 
wise. It  is  a  perfectly  legitimate  assumption, 
only  it  is  not  the  product  of  the  Scientilic  Method 
— as  that  is  commonly  understood  among  scientific 
men — but  of  Philosophic  Tliought.  It  is  the  as- 
sumption of  something  that  lies  outside  the  sphere 
of  Science,  in  the  ordinary  accejttation  of  the  term 
among  scientific  men.  But,  as  I  liold  that  there  is 
a  sphere  of  truth  beyond  the  reach  of  physical 
science,  I  can  have  no  quarrel  with  those  physical 
scientists  for  assuming  the  existence  of  something 
which  their  science  can  not  scientifically  demon- 
strate, only  I  confess  myself  amused  when  I  see  it 
done  by  some  scientific  men,  who  at  the  same  time 
dismiss  with  a  sneer  or  a  jeer  ©very  thing  wliich  they 


THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.      18 

call  "  metaphysical,"  as  having  no  title  to  recogni- 
tion among  respectable  thinkers  !  Why  !  the  very 
idea  of  force,  which  they  assume  and  talk  about,  is 
precisely  one  of  the  most  purely  metaphysical  of  all 
possible  conceptions  !  What  is  force  jper  se — force 
in  itself  \  Is  it  any  thing  phenomenal,  any  thing 
that  manifests  itself  by  itself  to  our  senses,  any 
thing  demonstrable  by  scientific  analysis  ?  Ko  ;  it 
is  purely  ideal ;  it  is  something,  the  recognition  of 
which  is  necessitated  by  the  laws  of  thought.  It 
does  not  alter  the  case  to  call  the  forces  they  as- 
sume mechanical,  chemical,  electrical,  magnetic,  vi- 
tal, or  the  like.  Those  epithets  denote  only  certain 
phenomenal  ingredients  in  a  concrete  conception, 
and  abstracted  from  those  epithets,  the  force  itself 
remains  a  purely  ideal  conception. 

I  myself  also  assume  that  there  are  forces  in  the 
universe — forces  physical  and  forces  spiritual.  But 
these  forces  did  not  create  themselves,  nor  estab- 
lish the  laws  of  their  action.  Back  of  the  phenom- 
ena, of  which  the  laws  are  the  generalized  expres- 
sion, lie  the  forces  that  produce  the  phenomena, 
and  back  of  these  forces  lies  the  great  First  Cause 
— the  supreme  Intelligence  and  Will  which  created 
the  forces,  and  prescribed  their  laws  of  action. 
There  is  no  other  rational  hypothesis  to  account 
either  for  what  science  calls  the  '•  Laws  of  Xature," 


14      THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

or  for  those  Laws  of  Miud  which  the  philosophic 
analysis  of  our  consciousness  reveals. 

]  lY.  But  the  special  question  is,  in  what  rea- 
sonably conceivable  way  to  rej)resent  to  ourselves 
the  ever-active,  all-ordering  intervention  and  con- 
trol of  Divine  Providence  in  the  universe  of  Matter 
and  of  Mind  1  The  physical  forces  of  the  universe 
seem  to  be  determined  in  their  action  by  fixed,  in- 
variable laws  ;  and  its  spiritual  forces — its  moral 
agencies — are  free,  and  can  not  be  irresistibly  de- 
termined by  any  external  power,  natural  or  super- 
natural. How  then  to  frame  a  possible,  reasonable 
concej)tion  of  the  way  or  method  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence ? 

Let  us  try  to  see  whatever  we  may  be  able  to  see. 
Modestly  and  reverently,  let  us  try  to  see. 

(L)  As  to  the  Physical  forces  of  the  universe. 
Some  philosophers  have  said  they  are  nothing 
but  the  direct  and  immediate  action  of  the  Divine 
Will,  and  so  have  made  short  work  in  solving  the 
question  of  Providence  in  the  sphere  of  Nature: 
God's  will  is  the  sole  force. 

I  do  not  hold  with  such  philosophers.  I  take  the 
forces  of  Nature  to  be  creations  of  God ;  distinct 
from  Him,  and  coeval  with  the  creation  of  matter. 

And  as  to  the  laws  of  these  physical  forces — 


TUE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.      lo 

•what  Avc  call  the  laws  of  Xatiire — we  must  reinein- 
ber  that  our  knowledge  of  them  is  empirical,  the  re- 
sult of  experience  and  experiment.  They  are,  you 
know,  mere  generalizations  from  an  observation  of 
particulars  which  (however  extensive,  and  constant- 
ly enlarging  with  the  progress  of  science)  is  neces- 
sarily limited ;  and  their  in  variableness  is  a  mere 
assumption  resting  upon  an  induction  which  (how- 
ever satisfactory)  is  necessarily  imperfect.  There 
is  no  necessary  contradiction  in  supposing  that  any 
given  phenomena  may  be  the  product  of  other 
forces  acting  under  other  laws  than  those  which  we 
now  explain  them  by.  And  the  progress  of  science 
is  every  day  replacing  old  explanations  by  new 
ones. 

The  forces  of  Nature  being  then  the  product  of 
God's  Creative  "Will,  and  the  Laws  of  Nature  being 
the  expression  of  His  Legislative  Will,  they  are 
under  His  perpetual,  absolute  control. 

But  it  is  not  to  be  thought  that  these  laws,  so  re- 
plete in  their  myriads  of  special  enactments  with 
such  marks  of  infinite  intelligence  and  wisdom,  such 
marvelous  adaptations  to  purpose  and  function  in 
their  million-fold  manifestations — it  is  not  to  be 
thought  that  such  laws,  established  by  such  a  Le- 
gislator, are  liable  to  be  capriciously  repealed,  sus- 
pended, or  changed. 


16      THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTKINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

I  do  not  wonder  that,  among  those  who  have  most 
profoundly  studied  the  laws  of  Nature,  there  are 
some  who  invest  these  laws  with  a  sort  of  autocra- 
tic, regal  or  vice-regal  sovereignty,  and  make  them 
"  immutable"  in  such  sort  that  God's  hands  are 
self-tied,  so  that  lie  can  not  or  will  not  interfere  in 
the  sphere  of  ^Nature  by  any  special  immediate  ex- 
ertion of  supernatural  power. 

But  this  notion  is  untenable.  All  that  has  any  rea- 
sonable claim  to  be  admitted  is  that  God  can  not,  will 
not,  and  does  not  interfere  capriciously  with  the  estab- 
lished course  of  Nature.  It  is  not  to  be  admitted 
that  He  can  not,  will  not,  and  does  not  interfere 
with  it  in  the  way  some  men  call  a  "  violation"  of 
the  laws  of  Nature,  provided  it  seem  good  to  Him 
to  do  so,  for  reasons  known  to  Himself,  which 
may  or  may  not  be  known  to  us.  It  is  absurd  to 
say  He  can  not,  and  impossible  to  demonstrate 
that  He  will  not  or  does  not  act  immediately 
and  supernaturally  in,  among,  and  v2)on  the  laws 
of  Nature  to  produce  extraordinary  and  special 
results. 

And  herein  lies  the  sufficient  rational  basis  for 
the  belief  in  a  miracle-working  God. 

I  do  not  now  go  into  a  particular  discussion  of 
the  subject  of  the  Christian  Miracles.  I  content 
myself   with   signalizing   its   rational  ground,  and 


rilK  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  TROYIDKNCE.       17 

have  only  further  to  observe  that,  in  respect  to 
any  and  every  special  case  of  alleged  miracle,  the 
question  is  purely  a  question  of  historical  evidence. 
The  Duke  of  Argyll  tells  us  that  this  ''seems  now 
to  he  admitted  on  all  hands,-'  and  Prof essor Huxley 
says,  "  denying  the  possibility  of  miracles  seems  to 
me  quite  as  unjustifiable  as  speculative  atheism." 
He  means  rationally  "unjustifiable." 

But  what  we  have  to  consider  more  particularly 
is  the  general  or  ordinary  method  of  God's  constant 
intervention  in  Xature — controlling  it,  yet  without 
miracle. 

And  here  it  is  to  our  purpose  to  observe  that  it  is 
absurd  to  say,  and  impossible  to  demonstrate,  that 
God  can  not,  will  not,  and  does  not  so  act  upon, 
manage,  and  control  the  forces  of  ISTature  as  through 
their  agency,  and  without  any  "violation"  of  the 
laws  of  jSTatm'e,  to  accomplish  special  effects  in  Ma- 
ture which  would  otherwise  not  have  been  brought 
about. 

And  not  only  is  it  absurd  to  say  God  can  not, 
and  impossible  to  demonstrate  that  He  does  not 
thus  act,  but  that,  in  point  of  fact.  He  does  thus 
act  is  rendered  crediljle  by  millions  of  facts  of  the 
same  kind  in  the  sphere  of  human  action.  All  over 
the  earth,  in  every  age,  every  day  and  hour,  human 


18      THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

intelligence  and  liuman  will  have  been  at  work  in 
controlling  tlie  forces  and  laws  of  Katnre  in  sub- 
servience to  human  uses,  combining,  adjusting,  and 
managing  them,  so  as  through  them  to  produce  re- 
sults which  the  forces  of  ISTature,  left  to  themselves, 
would  never  have  produced.  Men  have  achieved 
these  results,  not  by  "  violating "  the  laws  of  !Na- 
ture,  but  by  using  them.  And  Avhat  marvelous  re- 
sults in  our  day  !  The  most  tremendous  forces  of 
^Nature  have  been  made  obedient  servants  to  man's 
Avill,  and  as  easily  controlled  as  the  chiUrs  little 
go-cart.  The  steamers,  that  plow  all  waters  and 
connect  all  lands ;  the  railways,  that  bring  all 
places  together  ;  the  lightning-wires,  that  enable 
men  to  whisper  to  each  other  across  continents 
and  oceans  ;  and  the  thousand  other  engines  and 
machineries  which  the  skill  of  man  has  set  going 
in  factories  and  in  fields — all  these  are  the  product 
of  man's  will,  working  with  and  controlling  the 
forces  of  nature,  according  to  their  laws. 

You  see  the  bearing  of  this.  If  man,  by  his  in- 
telligence and  will,  can  thus  bend  the  forces  of  Ma- 
ture to  his  uses,  how  foolish  to  doubt  but  God  may 
do  the  like,  and  to  an  infinitely  greater  extent,  by 
as  much  as  His  knowledge  of  the  forces  of  Kature, 
and  His  wisdom  and  skill  and  ability  to  manage  and 
control  them,  are  infinitely  superior  to  man's  ! 


THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.      19 

And  this  managing  and  controlling  of  the  forces 
of  Xature,  so  as  by  and  through  them  to  work  ont 
the  good  purposes  of  His  holy  will,  -without  "  violat- 
ing" the  laws  of  JSTature— this  I  take  to  be  the 
reasonably  possible  general  way  of  God's  ordinary 
Providential  agency  in  the  Physical  universe.  And 
you  see  v/hat  a  powerful  support  this  theory  derives 
from  the  analogy  of  what  man's  intelligence  and 
will  are  perpetually  accomplishing  in  N^ature. 

(2.)  But  besides  God's  Providence  in  the  Physi- 
cal universe,  we  have  to  consider  also  His  Provi- 
dence in  the  Spiritual  universe — in  the  sphere  of 
spiritual  forces — that  is  to  say,  His  action  upon  the 
minds  and  wills  of  His  rational  creatures,  and  in 
what  way  it  may  be  reasonably  conceived. 

And  it  is  enough  to  say  here,  that  the  free-will  of 
finite  spiritual  beings,  though  not  subject  to  irre- 
sistible control,  like  the  forces  of  Mature,  is  yet 
open  to  the  influence  of  motives ;  and  that  all  the 
resources  of  such  influence  are  at  the  command  of 
the  infinite  intelligence  and  Avill  of  God. 

As  to  human  beings,  whose  nature  is  partly  phy- 
sical and  partly  spiritual,  it  is  obvious  that  the  free- 
will of  such  beings  is  open  to  the  combined  influ- 
ence both  of  physical  and  of  moral  motives  ;  and 
God  can  so  combine  and  order  all  external  events 
and  circmiistances  in  the  world  of  Nature  as   to 


20      THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

make  tlieiii  fall  in  Avitli  and  promote,  or  restrain 
and  tlnvart  men's  ontward  aims  and  efforts.  And 
lie  can  also  speak  persnasively  to  man's  inmost 
sj^irit — mind,  heart,  and  will — botli  indirectly 
throngli  natural  or  tlirongli  human  agencies,  and 
directly  by  immediate  Divine  suggestion  and  im- 
pression ;  and,  finally,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  set 
limits  to  the  power  lie  can  tlms  exert  over  the  wills 
of  His  rational  creatures  without  violating  their  es- 
sential freedom. 

Such,  then,  summarily,  is  the  rationale,  the  rea- 
sonable way  of  conceiving  how  Divine  Providence 
may  act  effectively,  both  in  the  Physical  and  in  the 
Spiritual  sphere  ;  and  it  affords  a  sufficient  reasona- 
ble ground  for  the  Christian  representation  of  God's 
supreme,  ever-active,  all-ordering  government  of 
the  universe  of  Matter  and  of  Mind. 

For  myself,  I  do  not  doubt  the  truth  of  the 
Christian  doctrine.  I  accept  it  as  a  natural  corol- 
lary from  the  idea  of  God  as  the  infinite  Personal 
Creator  and  Upholder  of  the  imiverse  ;  and  as  a 
doctrine  which  (as  I  said  at  the  outset)  satisfies  not 
only  the  needs  of  the  human  reason  demanding 
some  ground  to  stand  on,  but  also  the  deepest  in- 
most wants  of  the  human  heart  ever  crying  out  for 
a  living  God  and  Father. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTKINE  OF  I'ROVIDEN-CE.      21 

Y.  In  the  statement  of  the  Christian  doctrine 
on  Providence  which  I  laid  down  at  the  opening  of 
this  disconrse,  and  in  all  that  I  have  said  in  the 
progress  of  it,  the  Providential  government  of  God 
has  been  represented  as  all-comprehending  in  its 

scope. 

Put  I  wish  to  call  your  attention  a  little  more 
particularly  to  this  point :  that  God's  Providence 
embraces  the  universe  not  only  as  a  great  whole, 
but  in  all  its  parts  ;  that  it  includes  all  the  worlds 
that  roll  through  the  immensity  of  space — not  only 
as  an  aggregate  assemblage  of  countless  systems 
circling  round  a  central  Throne,  but  each  system 
and  each  separate  world  and  all  the  dwellers  in 
them,  not  collectively  only,  but  individually  also. 

"  There's  not  tlie  smallest  star  wliicli  tliou  bcliold'st, 
But  in  his  motion  like  an  angel  sings. 
Still  quiring  to  the  young-eyed  cherubins." 

In  every  smallest  star  there  is  a  song  which  both 
Nature  and  the  Spirits  there  sing  together  in 
unison — hymning  to  the  Maker  and  Orderer  of  all : 
"  God  hath  prepared  His  seat  in  the  heavens,  and 
Ilis  kingdom  ruleth  over  all." 

Put  there  are  those — and  this  is  the  reason  why 
I  have  called  your  special  attention  to  the  point  I 
have  made — there  are  those  Avho  believe  in  a  Divine 
Providence,  but  say  that  it  relates  only  to  the  im- 


22      THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

mutable  essence  of  things  as  God  has  made  them  ; 
that  it  embraces  the  universe  as  a  great  whole,  but 
not  all  particular  events  ;  that  it  includes  humanity 
as  a  race,  or  men  as  nations  and  states,  but  not  in- 
dividual men ;  that  to  realize  God  as  actually  at- 
tending to  and  regulating  all  single  and  daily 
events,  all  transient  phenomena  and  accidents,  is  to 
degrade  Him  to  the  level  of  finite  beings  ;  that  sucli 
representations  are  sheer  Anthropomorphism — 
childish  and  heatlienish,  and  are  entirely  incompa- 
tible with  the  majesty  and  perfection  of  His  nature. 

Ilow,  as  to  this  "  Anthropomorphism" — or  mak- 
ing God  like  men  :  it  is  a  great  scare-word  in  some 
quarters.  But  I  need  only  remind  you  that  we 
can  not  represent  to  ourselves  God's  activity  except 
in  some  approximate  way,  by  figured  conceptions 
derived  from  the  consciousness  of  our  own  causal 
power. 

And  I  deny  that  we  thereby  necessarily  make 
God  to  be  merely  such  an  one  as  we  ourselves  are  : 
on  the  contrary,  I  say  that  we  sufiiciently  arrest 
ourselves  from  doing  so  by  interposing  the  idea  of 
His  infinitude.  And  that  is  enough  to  justify  our 
way  of  speaking  of  Him.  It  is  not  anthropomor- 
phism in  any  objectionable,  childish,  or  heathenisli 
sense. 

Moreover  (and  tliat  shoukl  be  sufficient  for  us). 


THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.      23 

Jesus  Christ  always  used  sueli  anthropomorphic  ex- 
pressions. They  run  all  through  the  record  of  His 
teachings,  as  also  of  His  apostles. 

I  deny  too  that  the  representation  of  God  as  regu- 
lating particular  events  and  the  affairs  of  individuals 
is  incompatible  with  the  majesty  and  perfection  of 
His  natm'e.  Those  who  say  it  is  divest  God  of  His 
infinitude  and  subject  Him  to  finite  conditions 
derived  from  their  notions  of  an  earthly  sovereign 
— which  is  precisely  anthropomorphic  in  an  ab- 
surdly unjustifiable  sense. 

It  does  not  follow  that  what  does  not  comport 
with  the  conditions  or  the  majesty  of  an  earthly 
monarch  must  necessarily  be  incompatible  with  the 
conditions  or  derogatory  to  the  majesty  of  God. 
It  may  be  impossible  for  an  earthly  sovereign — who 
has  to  conduct  the  administration  of  public  affairs 
in  a  large  sphere  and  on  great  general  views — to  at- 
tend personally  to  and  regulate  the  private  affairs 
of  all  his  subjects  individually,  and  derogatory  to 
his  dignity  to  attempt  it.  But  what  of  that  ?  The 
infinite  Rider — precisely  because  He  is  infinite — 
can  at  once  govern  the  universe  as  a  great  whole, 
and  at  the  same  time  attend  to  the  particular  con- 
cerns of  every  individual  person.  It  costs  Him 
nothing.  It  derogates  nothing  from  His  majesty, 
but  enhances  our  conception  of  it.     Moreover,  for 


2-i      THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

Him  to  do  so  is  precisely  wliat  belongs  to  Ilim  to 
do  as  the  infinite,  Avise,  and  good  Father. 

Besides,  Ave  must  remind  those  Avho  object  to  the 
idea  of  God  as  actually  attending  to  and  regulating 
all  single  CA'ents,  that  this  minute  attention  and  re- 
gulation may  have  an  intimate  relation  to  the  great 
plan  of  the  Divine  goA^ernment  of  the  universe  as  a 
Avhole.  We  have  often  seen  Avhat  Avide-reaching 
consequences  seemingly  unimportant  events  may 
have ;  and  Ave  liaA^e  read  of  ten  thousand  instances 
of  things  as  trivial  as  the  spilling  of  a  cup  of  tea  on 
a  lady's  silk  dress  affecting  the  destiny  of  states 
and  nations.  And  hoAV  can  aa'C  tell,  but  the  most 
trivial  CA^ent  in  our  life  (as  it  may  seem  to  us)  may 
have  a  bearing  on  the  A\diole  future  course  of  our 
existence — here  and  hereafter — and  also  iq^on  the 
fortunes  of  humanity  and  of  the  universe  ?  There 
is  a  passage  in  De  Quincey's  Avritings  that  illustrates 
this  truth  in  his  grandly  periodic  style.  Speaking 
of  memorable  attempts  at  escape,  and  in  particular 
those  of  Charles  I.  and  Louis  XYI.,  he_  says  : 

"  But  alike  the  madness  or  the  providential  Avis- 
dom  of  such  attempts  commands  our  profoundest 
interest.  These  attempts  belong  to  history.  And 
it  is  in  that  relation  that  they  become  philosophical- 
ly so  impressive.  Generations  through  an  infinite 
series  are  contemplated  by  us  as  silently  aAvaiting 


THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.      25 

the  turning  of  a  sentinel  round  a  corner,  or  tlic 
casual  echo  of  a  footstep.  Dynasties  have  treindat- 
ed  on  tlie  chance  of  a  sudden  cry  of  an  infant  car- 
ried in  a  hasket ;  and  the  safety  of  empires  has 
been  suspended,  like  tlie  descent  of  an  avalanche, 
upon  the  moment  earlier  or  the  moment  later  of  a 
cougli  or  a  sneeze.  And  liigh  above  all  ascends 
solemnly  the  philosophic  truth,  tliat  the  least  things 
and  the  greatest  are  bound  together  as  elements 
equally  essential  in  the  mysterious  universe." 

Xo\v,  tliis  may  not  be  equally  true  of  all  single 
and  seemingly  trivial  events.  "We  need  not  say  or 
admit  that  it  is.  But  it  may  be  true  of  some  such 
events.  And  ^vho  but  God  can  tell  which  to  make 
matters  of  special  attention  and  regulation,  and 
M-hich  to  "  leave  to  themselves,"  as  we  say  ? 

But  what  it  chiefly  concerns  us  to  do  is  always  to 
think  of  God  as  at  least  as  good  as  a  wise  and 
loving  earthly  father,  Avho  cares  for  his  children  in- 
dividually, and  not  merely  in  the  lump. 

Jesus  Christ  always  spoke  of  God  as  "our 
Father."  Father!  That  is  a  Avord  of  the  heart. 
Our  infinite  Father!  With  a  Father's  heart  of 
love  for  all  His  spiritual  children,  "Who  concerns 
Himself  with  all  our  M'ants  and  needs  in  ways  as 
particular  and  minute  as  would  be  implied  in  the 


26      THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

actual  numbering  of  the  hairs  of  our  heads.  Jesus 
bids  us  pray  to  God  for  things  temporal  as  well  as 
for  things  eternal,  for  material  as  well  as  for  spirit- 
ual blessings,  saying,  "  Ask,  and  ye  shall  receive." 
Whatsoever  "  good  things" — things  good  for  you — 
ask,  and  ye  shall  receive. 

VI.  I  abstain  from  going  into  a  particular  dis- 
cussion of  the  Christian  doctrine  on  Prayer — its 
full  and  exact  meaning  and  contents,  and  the 
precise  conditions  under  and  within  which  it  holds 
true. 

I  will  only  remind  you  that  the  rationale  of  God's 
Providential  action  and  control  in  the  universe  of 
Matter  and  of  Mind,  which  I  have  given  at  some 
length  in  this  discourse,  furnishes  the  sufficient  and 
abundant  reasonable  ground  for  the  Christian  faith 
in  a  Prayer-answering  God  ;  and  that  you  see  it  is 
both  absurd  to  say  God  can  not,  and  impossible  to 
demonstrate  that  He  does  not  answer  prayers  for 
physical  as  well  as  for  spiritual  blessings. 

I  may  add,  too,  that  it  is  indispensably  necessary 
to  bear  in  mind  that  the  question  in  regard  to  God's 
answering  prayers  for  physical  blessings  turns  not 
on  the  invariableness  or  immutability  of  the  laws 
of  nature,  but  on  the  relation  of  the  power  of  the 
Divine  Will  to  the  forces  of  nature.     And  you  will 


THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.      27 

remember  that  I  have  already  shown  how,  in  ten 
thousand  cases,  the  power  of  man's  will  is  per- 
petually combining  and  managing  the  forces  of 
nature  so  as  to  change  the  order  of  events  with- 
out distm-bing  the  order  of  nature  or  violating  its 
laws,  and  how  absurd  it  is  to  say  that  God  can  not 
do  the  same. 

A  word  or  two  here  in  reference  to  the  pretension 
made  by  some  "  men  of  science"  (as  they  call  them- 
selves) to  the  right  of  subjecting  the  question  re- 
specting the  efficacy  of  prayer  for  physical  bless- 
ings to  a  "  scientific"  determination. 

I  object,  by  the  way,  in  limine,  to  the  fashion  in 
which  our  modern  physicists  arrogate  to  tliemselves 
exclusively  or  eminently  the  title  of  "  men  of 
science,"  as  if  there  were  no  science  but  physical 
science.  For  myself,  I  believe  there  is  another  than 
a  merely  physical  science,  and  a  higher  one.  There 
is  a  metaphysical  science  as  truly  as  there  is  a 
physical  science ;  a  science  of  the  supernatural  as 
truly  as  of  the  natural ;  of  the  non-phenomenal  as 
,  truly  as  of  the  phenomenal ;  of  the  infinite  as  well 
as  of  the  finite ;  a  science  of  God,  as  well  as  a  science 
of  Xature. 

But  it  is  idle  to  make  the  matter  a  merely  verbal 
question — a  question  about  the  right  use  of  the 
word  science.     Let  us — in  respect  to  the  point  now 


28      THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

before  us — let  us  let  these  "  men  of  science"  (as 
tliej  are  fond  of  calling  themselves,  with  a  superior 
air),  let  us  let  them  have  the  word  in  their  own 
sense. 

Science,  according  to  them,  is  only  of  the  pheno- 
menal, the  physical  world.  It  has  to  do  only  with 
the  laws  of  I^ature — laws  that  relate  to  j^hysical 
forces — laws  that  are  necessary  and  immutable. 

But  prayer  relates  to  sjDiritual  and  supernatural 
forces,  to  the  finite  free-will  of  man  and  to  the  in- 
finite free-will  of  God.  How  then  can  their  science 
determine  any  thing  about  the  action  of  such  forces  ? 
Think  of  it.  A  physical  determination  of  a  meta- 
physical relation  !  Why,  the  pretension  is  absurd. 
It  proceeds  upon  a  violation  of  the  old  logical 
maxim  and  necessary  law  of  human  thought — liete- 
Q'ogenea  non  sunt  comjMi^anda — things  generically 
disparate  can  not  be  brought  into  comparison. 
They  -might  as  rationally  attempt  to  tell  us  how 
much  the  whiteness  of  snow  is  whiter  than  the 
sweetness  of  sugar,  or  to  determine  the  height  of 
a  mountain  by  smelling  at  it  with  their  noses,  or  to 
weigh  an  imponderable  essence  in  a  pair  of  scales, 
or  to  put  a  mathematical  proposition  into  a  crucible 
and  melt  it,  in  order  to  demonstrate  "  scientifically" 
that  the  angles  of  a  triangle  are  equal  to  two  right 
angles.     Prayer  lies  outside  the  sphere  of  science, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTllINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.      29 

as  these  "  men  of  science"  count  science.     This  is 
the  sufficient  answer  to  their  pretension. 

I  have  now  done  with  all  the  leading  infidel  oh> 
jeetions  to  the  Christian  doctrine  of  God's  supreme 
all-ordering  Providence  in  the  universe  of  Matter 
and  of  Mind. 

YII.  But  besides  infidelities  of  denial,  there  are^ 
on  the  other  hand,  superstitions  of  belief. 

In  regard  to  these,  I  can  only  say  that  to  belie vo 
in  the  truth  of  God's  all-ordering  Providence,  is  one 
thing ;  to  apply  it  to  the  interpretation  of  parti- 
cular events,  is  another  thing.  Undoubtedly  there 
are  many  rash,  fanciful,  erroneous,  absurd,  and  fa- 
natical interpretations  made.  Nothing,  for  in- 
stance, is  more  common  than  to  construe  special  or 
extraordinary  calamities,  in  certain  cases,  as  Divine 
punishments.  Thus,  Job's  friends  explained  the  old 
chieftain's  extraordinary  afflictions  as  tokens  of  Di- 
vine retribution  for  secret  sin. 

But  our  Lord  rebukes  this  sort  of  unauthorized 
interpretation :  "  Think  ye  those  eighteen,  on  whom 
the  tower  of  Siloam  fell  and  slew  them,  were  sin- 
ners above  all  that  dwelt  at  Jerusalem  ?  I  tell  you 
nay." 

Undoubtedly  wc  do  right  in  saying  the  tower  of 
Siloam  fell  l)ecause  it  was  badly  built,  or  some  na- 


30      THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

tural  cause  had  disturbed  its  gravity.  It  would, 
doubtless,  have  fallen  precisely  at  the  moment  it 
fell,  if  there  had  been  nobody  beneath.  Those 
eighteen  were  there  at  the  time,  and  they  were 
crushed  in  the  fall.  It  was  a  remarkable  coinci- 
dence. God's  all-foreseeing,  all-disposing  Provi- 
dence ordered  it.  'No  doubt  of  that.  But  Jesus 
says  it  was  not  because  those  men  were  enormous 
sinners.  Por  aught  that  lie  says  to  the  contrary, 
they  may  have  been  better  men  than  the  average  of 
Jerusalem  sinners.  And  their  sinfulness,  be  it  great 
or  little,  may  have  had  nothing  to  do  with  their  be- 
ing under  the  tower  at  the  moment  it  fell,  and  being 
crushed  to  death  by  its  fall.  So  far  as  being  sin- 
ful goes,  all  men  would  be  obnoxious  (as  Jesus  inti- 
mates) to  some  similar  catastrophe.  In  this  case, 
God  ordered  the  event  for  good  reasons,  known  to 
Himself.  He  has  a  perfect  right  to  cut  short  hu- 
man life  in  any  way  He  may  please,  and  it  is  not  to 
be  supposed  as  possible  for  Him  to  do  injustice  to 
His  creatures  in  ordering  the  time  or  manner  of 
their  death.  . 

God's  Providence  is  a  Providence  of  equal  love. 
There  is  neither  caprice,  nor  favoritism,  nor  ha- 
tred, nor  dislike  of  individuals  in  it.  "  He  maketh 
His  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  the  good,  and  send- 
eth  rain  upon  the  just  and  the  unjust." 


THE  CIIRISriAN'  DOCTllINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.      31 

lie  lets  the  good  man  accommodate  the  bad  man 
by  exchanging  passage-tickets  M'itli  him.  The  bad 
man  sails  in  the  steamer  of  this  week,  and  gets 
safely  home  ;  the  good  man  sails  in  the  next  steam- 
er, and  is  lost  by  the  sinking  of  the  ship. 

The  overturned  railway-train  crushes  to  death 
the  meek,  unselfish  Sister  of  Charity,  bound  on  a 
journey  of  mercy,  Avliile  the  hardened  villain  sitting 
close  by,  with  his  head  full  of  schemes  of  crime,  is 
spa red - 

AVhat  is  the  special  Divine  meaning  in  cases  like 
this  ?  Who  but  God  can  tell  ?  We  only  know  that 
equal  wisdom,  equal  love,  orders  all. 

While,  therefore,  we  can  not  believe  too  strong- 
ly in  God's  all-ordering  Providence,  we  can  not 
be  too  careful  in  interpreting  His  special  design. 
What  we  know  not  now,  we  shall  know  here- 
after; at  least,  I  thiidc  we  shall.  Meantime,  we 
may  rest  assured  that  lie  orders  the  destiny  of 
every  one  of  His  spiritual  creatures,  both  in  this 
world  and  in  the  world  bevond,  for  their  hio-hest 
good. 

VIII.  But  let  us  pass  now  to  a  brief  considera- 
tion of  God's  Providential  government  in  relation 
to  humanity  as  a  race,  and  to  the  universe  as  a 
whole — to  the  contemplation  of  God  in  history. 


32      THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

As  to  liumau  history,  its  whole  course,  from  the 
beginning,  has  been,  is  now,  and  ever  will  be,  con- 
ducted by  the  Most  High.  Human  histoiy  is  not, 
indeed,  like  the  world  of  space,  the  mere  product  of 
the  Almighty  w^ill,  nor  the  mere  product  of  human 
activity  alone.  There  is  a  human  element  in  it,  and 
there  is  an  element  that  is  Divine.  But  the  infinite 
Ruler  presides  over  the  busy  activities  of  human 
freedom  through  generations  and  ages  ;  prepares  the 
scene ;  calls  the  actors  forth  in  their  time  and  turn, 
and,  through  their  action,  carries  onward  from  age  to 
age  the  unfolding  of  some  great  Divine  plan,  which 
embraces  Humanity  as  a  whole.  There  is,  doubtless,  a 
Divine  idea  ever  realizing  itself  in  the  historical  life 
of  Humanity,  as  truly  as  in  the  life  of  Nature — in 
the  events  of  human  history  as  in  the  phenomena  of 
the  material  world.  The  mind  and  hand  of  the  Al- 
mighty, as  well  as  the  mind  and  hand  of  man,  have 
been  in  all  the  fates  and  fortunes  of  the  nations ;  in 
the  rise  and  fall  of  empires,  the  revolutions  of  dy- 
nasties, the  wars  and  conquests,  battles  and  sieges, 
negotiations  and  treaties,  with  which  the  pages  of 
historical  books  are  tilled.  Invisibly  in  and  behind 
the  visible  procession  of  events,  the  Supreme  Dis- 
poser has  presided  with  a  great  purpose  of  His 
own. 

"\Ve  must,  however,  remember  that  humanity  is 


THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.      33 

destined  to  exist  in  a  spliero  beyond  tliis  world.  The 
earthly  history  of  the  human  race  is  not  a  complete 
drama  in  itself.  It  is  one  act  only.  When  the 
curtain  drops  at  the  end  of  the  world,  it  drops  but 
to  rise  again  for  another  act,  on  another  and  a 
vaster  stage.  Christianity  announces,  and  the 
deepest  instincts  of  the  human  reason  and  of  the 
human  heart  point  to  a  destination  beyond  this 
world. 

The  history  of  humanity,  moreover,  in  its  largest 
view,  both  in  this  world  and  in  the  world  beyond, 
enters  into  another  and  more  comprehensive  history 
still,  the  history  of  the  universe.  Human  history  is 
but  a  part — it  may  be,  must  be,  a  small  part — of  that 
grand  Universe-drama  which  is  to  go  on  for  ever 
unfolding  in  the  round  of  eternal  ages. 

Over  this  unfolding,  the  Infinite  Mind  presides. 
Not  without  purpose  does  the  Most  High  govern 
the  universe  ;  not  for  nothing ;  not  for  the  mere 
sake  of  governing ;  not  for  the  sake  of  any  vain- 
glorious self-display,  making  Himself  the  grand 
Self-Showman  of  the  universe,  as  some  men  make 
Him  out  to  be ;  but  for  some  end  worthy  of  an  in- 
finite, wise,  and  good  God. 

Doubt  not,  then,  that  the  Universe-drama  has  its 
plan.  It  does  not  roll  at  random.  Its  great  action 
is  Divinely  conducted  in  its  eternal  development. 


84      THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

The  Providence  of  God  is  tlie  Genius  of  the  His- 
tory of  the  Universe. 

IX.  "What  this  all-comprehending  Divine  pur- 
pose is,  -we  should  not  dare  permit  ourselves  to 
assert,  nnless  Divinely  tanght.  Still,  reason  would 
reasonably  suggest  it  to  bo  the  subjugation  and 
final  extinction  of  evil. 

Evil  exists  in  the  nniverse  of  God.  We  shonld 
have  to  take  for  granted  the  Divine  wisdom  and 
goodness  of  its  permission,  even  if  we  could  con- 
ceive no  reasonable  explanation  of  its  origin.  In  ten 
thousand  things,  the  nndeniable  rests  npon  the  in- 
scrutable, and  whoever  determines  to  hold  nothing 
for  true  that  is  inexplicable,  or  rests  npon  an  inex- 
plicable ground,  will  inevitably  be  driven  to  have 
less  than  one  article  to  his  creed.  Omnia  exeunt  in 
mysteria — all  things  go  out  into  mystery  at  last. 
Human  science,  in  its  highest  result,  is  always 
brought  face  to  face  with  something  it  can  not  an- 
alyze. 

Evil  exists ;  but  good  and  evil  are  in  necessary 
opposition.  And  a  great  struggle  between  the 
powers  of  Good  and  the  powers  of  Evil,  conducted 
by  the  Most  High  Himself,  we  might  not  unreason- 
ably assume  to  be  the  deepest  inmost  sense  of  the 
history  of  the  universe,  and  so  of  the  history  of  hu- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTIlliSTE  OF  rROVIDENX'E.       35 

manity.  And  Cliristianitj  seems  to  represent  the 
"gathering  together  of  all  things"  into  a  nniverse 
of  goodness,  unity,  and  2>eace,  as  the  all-eonijjre- 
liending  end  forAvhicli  the  Infinite  Father  presides 
over  the  great  drama  of  the  nniverse. 

Subordinate  to'this,  or  ratlier  inchided  in  it,  we 
miglit  reasonably  suppose,  and  are  so  instrnctcd, 
that  ilie  special  2>urpose  of  the  Divine  intervention 
in  human  history  is  the  disciplinary  education  of  the 
human  race,  and  its  advancement  toward  that  full 
and  perfect  rational  development  which  man's  spir- 
itual constitution  makes  possible,  and  after  which 
man's  reason  and  conscience  prompt  him  to  strive. 

But  our  little  world  has  been  the  chosen  theatre 
for  an  intervention  of  Divine  Providence,  which, 
among  all  possible  interventions,  is  singular  and 
tninscendent — namel}^  the  historical  appearance  of 
Jesus  Christ,  announcijig  Himself  as  sent  by  the 
Infinite  Father,  to  proclaim  and  to  effect  the  re- 
storation of  fallen  humanity,  and  to  establish  "  the 
kingdom  of  God  "  npon  the  earth. 

AVe  know  not  xchy  this  particular  method  of  Di- 
vine intervention  was  chosen,  nor  can  we  explain 
the  Iwiv  of  its  efficacious  connection  with  human  re- 
storation. "We  know  that  God  was  bound — we  say 
it  reverently,  but  we  say  it  firmly — God  was  bound 
to  intervene  in  human  behalf  in  some  way ;  and  "\ve 


36      THE  CHRISTIAN  ]>OCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

can  understand  what  Jesus  Christ  propounded  as 
jto  the  origin  and  object,  the  motive  and  end,  of 
this  particular  method  :  God's  love  the  motive,  hu- 
man restoration  the  end.  "  So  God  loved  the  world, 
that  lie  sent  His  Son,  that  the  world  through  Him 
might  be  saved." 

The  historical  appearance  of  Christ  is  the  central 
fact  in  the  world's  history,  containing  in  itself  (we 
know  not  how)  the  principle  of  the  union  of  man 
with  God,  by  a  Divine  power,  which,  through  the 
Divine  Spirit,  wrought  in  the  heart  of  humanity  in 
advance  of  Christ's  actual  coming,  as  it  has  wrought 
in  the  ages  that  have  followed. 

And  not  only  the  principle  of  the  unity  of  hu- 
manity with  God,  but  also  of  the  whole  rational 
universe.  Such,  at  least,  may  be  the  meaning  of 
the  words  of  one  of  the  apostles  of  Jesus — "  that  in 
the  dispensation  of  the  fullness  of  time,'^  the  Infi- 
nite Father  "  might  gather  into  one  all  things  in 
Christ,  both  which  are  in  heaven  and  which  are  on 
earth,  even  in  Him." 

So  much,  then,  in  fine,  for  the  comprehensive 
idea  of  God's  Providence  in  the  history  of  human- 
ity and  of  the  universe,  and  its  all-embracing  pur- 
pose. 

And  now,  is  not  this  view  of  a  universe  thus 


THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.      37 

watched  over,  cared  for,  guarded  and  guided  to  its 
high  rational  end — is  not  tliis  view  a  better  one  tlian 
the  dreary  spectacle  of  a  universe  forced  through 
the  ages  hy  fatal  forces — it  knows  not  wliitlier  nor 
why — and  a  passive,  inactive,  inexorable  Looker-on 
its  only  God  ? 

"Which  of  the  two  is  tlio  truer  Philosophy  of  the 
History  of  the  Universe,  I  leave  you  to  say, 

X.  It  is  a  stupendous  conception — God's  uni- 
versal, all-ordering  Providence.  Yet  reason  de- 
mands and  justifies  it,  and  the  lieart  needs  it.  Let 
us  hold  it  fast  in  the  simplicity  of  an  undoubting 
faith,  even  though  it  baffles  and  confounds  the 
imagination  in  tlie  attempt  to  grasp  and  realize  it. 

I  suppose  the  sight  of  tlie  starry  lieavens,  more 
commonly  than  any  thing  else,  overwhelms  the  im- 
agination, and  makes  the  idea  of  God's  particular 
Providence  seem  ahnost  too  great,  too  Avonderf  ul  to 
be  believed.  I  presume  we  have  all  felt  this  many 
times,  more  strongly  indeed  at  some  than  at  other 
times.  I  remember  the  overwhelming  impression 
made  upon  myself  tlie  last  time  my  attention  was 
arrested  by  the  spectacle  which  a  starlit  night  pre- 
sents. 

I  had  gone  out  of  doors  into  the  still  air  of  a 
cloudless,  moonless  sky.     The  air  was  as  clear    as 


38      THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

clear  could  be,  and  not  the  smallest  bit  of  cloud 
flecked  the  sky.  The  pure  blue  vault  was  studded 
thick  with  stars ;  no  space  but  seemed  full  of 
them — ten  thousand  glittering  lights.  I  thought 
not  merely  of  the  wonderful  beauty  of  the  sight 
my  eyes  took  in,  but  of  the  more  wonderfid  mean- 
ing which  the  sight  revealed  to  my  intelligence : 
myriads  of  vast  worlds,  in  tlie  midst  of  which  our 
little  globe  is  but  a  floating  speck ! 

And  those  myriads  of 'worlds  which  I  saw — I 
thought  how  small  a  part  they  are  of  those  I  might 
see  if  I  should  stay  out  all  night,  looking  as  the  re- 
volving earth  brought  new  orbs  to  view,  successive- 
ly rising  in  the  east.  Then,  too,  I  thought  how  the 
sun  hides  by  day  as  many  stars  as  tlie  night  reveals. 
Then,  too,  what  myriads  of  other  stars  are  visible  to 
dwellers  in  the  Southern  hemisphere,  which  I  should 
see  if  I  could  put  myseK  there  now  ! 

But  what  are  all  the  stars  visible  to  the  naked 
human  eye,  compared  with  those  beyond  its  reach  ? 
The  telescope  brings  them  to  view — immense 
worlds ;  suns  of  other  systems  glittering  in  spots 
where  the  naked  eye  sees  nothing  but  the  blue 
void;  and  every  improvement  in  the  teleseoiDe 
brings  new  orbs  to  sight.  But  be^^ond  the  reach  of 
my  naked  eye,  or  of  any  telescope  man  has  made  or 
can  make,  what  worlds  upon  worlds,  and  systems 


THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.      39 

upon  systems,  doubtless,  stretch  outward  througli 
boundless  space  !  Eternity  and  infinitude  give  time 
and  room  enough  for  the  Great  Maker  to  Avork  in. 
And  what  limits  can  we  assign  to  His  work  ? 

And  all  those  worlds — have  they  their  dwellers, 
too  ?  Doubtless,  yes.  Do  you  suppose  our  little 
globe,  so  filled  with  every  form  of  life,  even  down 
to  organizations  so  minute  that  it  takes  the  strongest 
microscope  to  reveal  them — do  you  suppose  our  lit- 
tle globe  is  the  only  abode  of  organic  and  of  rational 
life?     I  do  not  believe  it. 

Thus  looking  and  thus  thinking,  how  overwhelm- 
ing to  the  imagination  becomes  the  conception  of 
God's  all-ordering  Providence,  embracing  all  those 
coimtless  worlds,  and  all  the  dwellers  in  them  ! 

And  even  M'hen  from  our  little  globe  we  look  up 
to  the  starry  sky,  and  think  only  of  God's  Provi- 
dence over  man,  how  the  words  of  the  poet  David 
spring  to  our  minds,  and  more  impressively  to  us 
than  they  could  to  him :  "  When  I  consider  the 
heavens  the  work  of  Thy  fingers,  the  moon  and  the 
stars  which  Thou  hast  made.  Lord,  what  is  man 
that  Thou  art  mindful  of  him,  and  the  son  of  man 
that  Thon  visitest  him." 

Yet  Jesns  Christ  bids  ns  believe  in  God's  fatherly 
Providence  over  man.  God  is  love.  Ilis  Provi- 
dence over  man  is  a  Providence  of  Love.     Love  is 


40      THE  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE. 

the  strongest  power  in  the  universe,  and  Jesus 
Christ  Himself,  in  His  own  person,  is  God's  licart 
of  Human  Love  to  man.  He  it  is  that  bids  us  have 
faith  in  God's  infinite,  fatherly  tenderness.  He  it  is 
that  bids  us  believe  that  the  Father  is  ever  leading 
us  by  His  own  hand  through  the  dark  days  and 
bright  days,  the  sorrows  and  tlie  joys  of  our  earthly 
pilgrimage,  making  all  things  work  together  for  our 
good. 

Let  us,  then,  thankfully  believe,  firmly  trust  in, 
and  entirely  submit  ourselves  to  the  all-ordering 
Providence  of  the  Living  God,  the  Loving  Father 
of  us  all. 


THE 


Christian  Doctrine  of  Prayer. 


HUGH  MILLER  THOMPSON,  D.l)., 

Rector  or  Cuhist  Cuurch,  New-York. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE   OF   PRAYER. 


"  And  it  came  to  pass  as  lie  was  praying  in  a  certain  place, 
■when  ho  ceased,  one  of  his  disciples  said  unto  him,  Lord, 
teach  us  to  pray  as  John  also  taught  his  disciples." — Luke 
11:  1. 

TiiKKE  arc  a  great  many  tilings  to  Avliicli  men 
object,  as  parts  of  Christianity,  wliieli  are  not  pecu- 
liarly parts  of  it  at  all.  It  was  not  necessary  that 
Christianity  should  teach  men  to  pray.  Prayer  is 
a  natural  instinct.  !Men  have  always  prayed,  and  I 
sujjpose  always  Avill.  The  question  is :  JIow  and 
to  lohom  shall  they  pray  I 

In  any  danger  or  distress  of  body  or  soul,  men 
have  cried  to  some  invisible  power  stronger  than 
themselves,  stronger  than  any  thing  they  knew 
in  the  world,  for  deliverance.  In  famine,  in 
plague,  on  the  approach  of  enemies  whom  they 
were  powerless  to  repel,  nations  have  cried  to  the 
invisible  powers  for  safety.  And  men,  as  indivi- 
duals, when  pressed  by  sudden  calamity,  when  sud- 
den death  has  stared  them  in  the  face,  upon  the 
midnight  seas  in  wreck  and  storm,  underneath  any 


44        THE   CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE   OF   PRAYER. 

sudden  stroke,  or  under  conviction  of  overwhelm- 
ing sin,  wlien  the  voice  of  conscience,  that  never 
can  be  silenced,  spake  out  of  the  darkness  and  pro- 
phesied woe ;  have  always  knelt  and  cried  to  the 
gods — the  bad  gods  or  the  good  gods,  the  gods 
supernal  or  the  gods  infernal,  but  to  some  pow- 
ers unseen.  For  the  conviction  that  back  of  all 
that  was  visible  there  lay  something  invisible,  that 
behind  this  material  world,  or  beyond  it,  there  lay 
an  awful  world  of  power  invisible,  this  conviction 
has  been  in  the  heart  of  men  from  the  beginning, 
and  Avill  remain  in  the  heart  of  men  until  the  end. 
We  need  have  no  fear  of  that.  When  men  have 
tried  all  things  by  their  own  power,  visible  or 
material,  then,  in  their  despair,  they  have  appealed 
to  the  gods.  "  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread," 
the  Christian  prays.  An  Indian  corn  dance  is  the 
same  prayer.  It  diJffers  but  in  object.  The  Indian 
corn  dance,  the  sacrifice  to  Pan,  were  only  human 
nature's  dumb  instincts  appealing  to  the  unseen, 
to  the  powers  that  hold  humanity  in  the  hollows 
of  their  mighty  hands,  powers  that  could  save  or 
could  destroy — strangely,  darkly,  but  still  appeal- 
ing. There  is  not,  over  all  this  fair  earth,  a  land 
that  has  not  been  dyed  with  the  blood  of  sacrifice. 
Men  have  gone  to  the  gods  dyed  with  the  blood  of 
beasts,  and  asked  to  be  saved  ;  dyed  with  the  blood 


THE    CHRISTIAN   DOCrilIXE    OF    TKAYER.  45 

of  iiicn,  and  asked  to  be  pardoned  ;  dyed  with  the 
blood  of  their  first-horn  offered  -to  propitiate. 
The  dearest  thing  they  had  they  offered  as  their 
prayer  to  God,  The  dying  groans  of  the  victim, 
the  affonv  of  the  dumb  beast,  tlie  sliriek  of  shiujjh- 
tered  men,  liave  been  man's  prayers  to  the  gods 
above  him. 

So,  Avhen  Christ  came,  the  word  was  not,  "  Shall 
we  pray?"  but,  "Lord,  teach  ns  hoio  to  pray;" 
"  Teach  ns  Jioic  to  come  to  God  ;  "  "  Teach  us  how 
to  approach  God,  and  Who  God  is." 

The  character  of  the  God  determines  the  charac- 
ter of  the  prayer.  That  was  in  the  mind  of  the 
disciples  and  in  the  mind  of  the  Lord  when  lie 
taught  them  a  prayer  according  to  their  request : 
"  Show  us  God ;  tell  us  what  His  nature  is,  and 
His  name,  and  so  shall  we  know  how  to  approach 
Him  acceptably,  and  receive  good  gifts  at  His 
hands."  Prayer  comes  to  us,  therefore,  as  the  natural 
instinct  of  man  displaying  itself  on  every  page  of 
his  history  ;  men  praying  as  individuals,  or  praying 
as  communities,  or  praying  as  nations,  or  praying 
as  churches,  but  still  praying.  There  has  gone 
up  from  the  earth  a  ceaseless  cry  of  lamentation 
and  woe,  or  of  thanksgiving  and  praise  to  the 
heavens  above. 

In  speaking  to  you,  therefore,  to-night,  of  the 


46         THE    CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE    OF   PRAYER. 

Christian  Doctrine  of  Prayer,  I  must  look  to  prayer 
as  it  was  taught  hy  the  Lord  Himself,  and  as  prayer 
comes  to  ns  now,  Christian  men  in  a  Christian  land, 
who  have  had  a  Revelation  of  the  Invisible  teach- 
ing ns  the  natnre  of  God,  iDroclaiming  His  Father- 
hood and  man's  Sonship. 

Of  course,  I  am  not  to  prove  the  existence  of 
God.  I  am  not  speaking  to  men  wdio  helieve  in 
the  dirt  philosophy  ;  I  am  not  speaking,  at  least  I 
shall  not  speak,  to  those  who  suppose  there  is  noth- 
ing beyond  what  is  visible,  nothing  beyond  what 
is  tangible,  who  suppose  there  is  no  ear  that  can 
hear,  no  voice  that  can  answer,  no  heart  that  can 
feel.  I  speak  to  those  wdio  believe  in  God,  and 
that  God  "  Our  Father,"  who  has  an  ear  to  hear,  a 
hand  to  save,  a  heart  to  feel. 

And  from  that  point  of  view,  I  am  met  with  this 
objection  :  "  God  is  unchangeable  :  how  can  our 
prayers  change  the  unchangeable  ?" 

Kow,  the  unchangeableness  of  God  is  of  the  very 
essence  of  our  faith.  Christianity,  first  of  all,  re- 
veals it.  We  must  accept  the  responsibility  of  a 
God  that  changes  not ;  that  alters  not  nor  wea- 
ries. The  Unchangeable  for  ever  and  for  ever  is 
our  God  and  Father.  Now,  how  with  such  a  God 
shall  we  come  to  pray  ?  We  bring  our  petitions 
before  Him ;  we  ask  Him  for  pardon  or  ask  Him 


THE    CIIKISTIAN    DOCTKINE    OF    J'KAYEK,         47 

for  bread.  "\Ve  ask  Ilim  for  deliverance  from  some 
"svoe  ;  M'e  ask  Iliin  for  salvation  from  some  bodily, 
mental,  spiritual  pain.  God  has  brought  it  on  us — 
at  least  it  has  come  by  His  law.  He  has  at  least 
pemiitted  it.  Do  we  ask  Him  to  change  ?  "  How 
can  man's  feeble  words  change  God  T'  The  answer 
is  :  There  is  an  entire  mistake.  Xo  Christian  man 
prays,  expecting  to  change  God.  Xo  prayer  that 
was  ever  offered  with  the  expectation  that  God 
would  either  repent  or  change  was  a  ChristiaTi 
prayer.  God  is  unchangeable.  That  is  the  very 
iirst  thought.  H  God  be  captious,  if  God  be  change- 
able, if  God  be  open  to  flattery,  open  to  any  pro- 
pitiation, open  to  feel  lovingly  toward  me  to-day, 
and  open  to  hating  me  to-morrow,  how  can  I  pray 
to  a  God  that  veers  as  the  winds  veer,  that  changes  as 
the  tides  change  ?  Xo.  The  very  God  we  need  to 
pray  to  is  a  God  unchangeable.  For  it  is  not  that 
I  seek  to  change  God  by  prayer  ;  but  quite  another 
thing,  my  relation  toward  God ;  and  that  change 
is  effected  not  by  changing  God,  who  is  not  change- 
able, but  by  changing  myself.  God  was  in  Christ 
reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself  ! 

You  stand  some  day  on  a  plain,  and  there  rises 
in  the  distance  a  mountain — a  single  peak,  let  us 
say,  as  you  can  sometimes  see  them  on  our  own 
broad  plains  in  the  West.     You  pass  a  day's  jour- 


48         THE    CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE   OF   PRAYER. 

iiey  with  that  mountain  in  your  sight.  At  every 
hour  of  your  journey,  your  relation  to  the  moun- 
tain changes  ;  the  mountain  still  stands  just  the 
same.  You  approach  it  on  the  one  side,  and  as 
you  look  at  it,  it  lifts  to  the  blue  above  rugged 
peaks,  splintered  by  the  lightnings,  worn  with  the 
storms,  glittering  underneath  the  sunlight,  flash- 
ing in  the  pallid  moonbeams,  daily  and  nightly. 
The  shadow  falls  on  you  as  you  stand  if  the  sun 
is  beyond,  and  you  are  in  the  coolness.  You 
pass  on  and  around,  and  on  another  side  the  hot 
sun  beats  down  upon  you.  You  are  footsore,  dusty, 
thirsty,  weary.  On  that  side,  no  brook  comes  down, 
no  springs  flash  out.  It  is  a  hard,  barren  waste. 
You  go  on  still  to  another  slope.  The  forest  grows 
up,  covering  the  shaggy  sides  with  greenness,  and 
there  in  the  shadow  of  the  woods  the  rivulets  steal 
downward  through  the  clefts  to  the  brimming  river  in 
the  valley,  and  you  stoop  and  drink,  and  are  refresh- 
ed. So,  as  you  journey  hour  by  hour,  you  may  change 
your  relation  to  the  mountain,  and  at  no  two  points 
that  you  occupy  will  the  mountain  be  just  the 
same  to  you.  You  have  seen  it  on  different  sides, 
you  have  borne  diiferent  relations  to  it,  you  have 
climbed  its  rocky  sides,  you  have  been  cold  upon 
its  snowy  summit,  you  have  rested  in  its  cool  sha- 
dow, you  have  been  protected  from  the  storm  by 


TIIK    CHRISTIAN    DOCTRINE    OF   PRAYER.         49 

its  caves.  But  you  changed — tlie  rooted  mountain 
still  remained  the  same. 

Or,  again,  the  snn  above  our  heads,  the  best 
image  of  the  michangeable  ^ve  know,  the  chosen 
type  of  the  Lord  Himself,  sets  and  rises  to  theman. 
It  never  sets  and  never  rises  to  itself.  You  see  it  to- 
day through  the  watery  vapors  of  the  winter-time  ; 
anotlier  day,  again,  you  see  it  blazing  down  from 
the  zenith  in  a  liot  August  noon.  You  see  it 
sink  slowly  to  its  rest  at  evening  ;  at  morning, 
flaming  in  the  eastern  skies,  now  lurid  through 
mists,  now  blazing  in  the  vaporless  blue.  "We 
call  these  changes,  changes  in  the  sun,  and  yet  the 
great  sun  always,  day  and  night,  iu  storm  or  calm, 
at  rising  or  at  setting,  has  not  changed.  You 
change,  your  atmosphere  changes,  your.little  world 
chancres,  and  the  relation  is  changed  ;  but  the  sun 
never. 

Xow,  to  bring  a  change  in  relation  between 
God  and  man,  one  of  the  beings  being  changeless, 
you  must  change  the  other.  Man  must  alter  the 
relation  by  altering  himself ;  and  that  relation  is 
certainly  one  thing  in  prayer  and  another  thing 
without  it. 

You  can  reduce  it,  if  you  will,  to  a  mathematical 
formula.  The  relation  between  God  and  man, 
minu.<i  prayer,  you  can  represent  by  what   figure 


60         THE   CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE   OF   PRAYER. 

you  please;  but  however  you  choose  to  represent 
it,  it  will  make  no  equation  with  the  other  state- 
ment of  the  relation  of  God  to  man  jpliis  prayer, 
God  remaining  still  the  unchanged  quantity  in 
your  calculation.  God  unalterable,  the  varying 
man  varies  the  relation.  The  man  with  prayer 
must  stand  in  one  relation  to  God  ;  the  man  w'ltli- 
out  prayer  in  quite  another.  There  is  the  difference. 
You  may  shut  yourself  in  a  cellar  in  June,  if  you 
will,  and  the  bright  sun  above  you  shall  send  no 
ray  down  to  you.  So  you  may  roof  yourself  in 
from  God's  grace,  if  you  will  ;  but  God's  grace  still 
descends,  just  the  same.  You  may  cover  your 
garden-bed  from  the  dews  of  night  if  jTni  please  ; 
but  the  dews  of  night  descend  all  the  same.  So, 
again,  you  may  cover  yourself  from  the  dews  of 
God's  grace  and  blessing  ;  3'ou  may  turn  away  from 
His  good  gifts,  shut  your  heart  to  God,  and  yet 
God's  grace  goes  over  all  the  world,  God's  good 
gifts  are  everywhere  given,  God's  pity  falls  like 
the  sunlight,  His  mercy  comes  like  the  rain,  His 
blessino^s  are  showered  on  good  and  ill  alike.  God's 
gifts  fall  on  the  unchristian,  on  the  sinful,  as  the 
Lord  teaches  us,  on  the  just  and  the  unjust  alike. 
The  question  is  for  the  man  himself.  Shall  he  take 
or  shall  he  refuse ;  shall  he  cover  himself  from 
God's  goodness,  or  shall  he  open  his  heart  to  it  % 


THE   CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE   OF   PRAYER.         51 

So  we  pass  that.  It  is  an  entire  mistake  to  sup- 
pose tliat  we  seek  to  change  the  unchangeable 
God. 

Prayer  is  changing  man's  relations  to  God.  But 
prayer  is  not  only  asking  for  what  we  need,  which 
is  tlie  heathen  idea.  It  is  far  more  than  that.  It 
is  a  positive  communion  with  God.  You  can  not 
describe  Christian  prayer,  as  has  been  attempted, 
by  any  comparison  with  the  cry  of  a  dumb  animal 
when  seized  to  his  death.  Christian  prayer  is  not 
the  cry  of  wild  distress,  nor  the  last  shriek  from  a 
man's  lips  as  he  goes  down  in  the  darkness  choked 
by  the  foam  ;  nor  the  cry  as  he  yields  up  his  breath 
in  battle ;  nor  the  groan  for  mercy  as  the  sinner 
tosses  on  abed  of  pain ;  a  prelude, as  his  conscience 
prophesies,  of  a  bed*of  pain  for  ever.  Christian 
prayer  is  a  changing  of  the  relation,  as  I  have  de- 
scribed l)y  a  man's  putting  himself  in  a  certain  posi- 
tion toward  God.  It  embraces  communion,  praise, 
thanksgiving,  as  well  as  prayer.  -It  is  standing 
toward  God,  and  looking  to  Ilim  as  a  Father  and 
'  a  Friend.  It  is  coming  to  Ilim,  and  opening  the 
heart  to  Ilim,  exposing  all  its  feelings  to  Ilim, 
speaking  out  every  difficidty,  laying  it  fairly  before 
Ilim,  consulting  Him  upon  it,  taking  Ilim  into 
one's  confidence,  as  you  could  not  take  your  best 
friend. 


52         THE    CHRISTIAN    DOCTRINE    OF    PRAYER. 

God  represents  Himself,  as  He  is,  all-powerful 
and  all-wise,  Lord  and  Father,  and  His  jJalace-doors 
arc  open  day  and  niglit,  and  nsliers  liave  orders  to 
admit  throngh  all  the  shining  hosts  into  the  very  pre- 
sence-ehamber  of  the  King,  at  any  hour  they  may  ^ 
come,  those  children  of  His  that  seek  Him,  and 
who  shall  find  Him  neither  occupied  with  business 
nor  taken  up  with  the  government  of  the  world. 
They  may  come  there  and  talk  with  God,  as  it  Avere, 
as  one  talks  to  his  friend  and  benefactor. 

That  is  Christian  prayer.  It  calls  out  the  intel- 
lect ;  it  calls  out  the  affections  ;  it  calls  out  the 
most  strenuous  exertions  of  the  human  Avill ;  it 
calls  out  every  power  that  gives  dignity  to  man. 

You  say,  "  AVe  see  all  this,  and  we  grant  the  sub- 
jective use  and  value  of  ]5rayer.  You  will  say 
nothing  more  than  is  safe  when  you  say  that  the 
man  that  prays  must  be  a  man  who  lives  on  a  loftier 
plane  than  the  man  Avho  does  not  pray ;  that  the 
man  who  is  in  the  habit  of  going  to  God  in  this 
way,  and  communing  with  Him,  talking  with  Him, 
face  to  face,  that  he  must  be  a  nobler  man,  intellec- 
tually and  morally,  than  the  man  that  does  not  ^^^^ ; 
and  it  were  worth  while  to  keep  uji  prayer,  and 
]3ublic  worship,  and  private  worship ;  worth  while 
to  encourage  men  to  pray,  if  only  for  this  result 
in  educatinor  and  elevatino;  man." 


THE    CHKISTIAN    DOCTKIXE    OF    rilAYEIl.         53 

"  But  is  there  any  thing  heyond  that  ?  Is  it,  after 
all,  any  thing-  more  than  a  subjective  exercise,  and 
does  it  bring  any  thing  more  than  a  subjective,  en- 
nobling, aiul  lifting  up  of  the  soul,  raising  it  above 
the  chances  and  changes  of  life  i  Is  it  possible  for 
God  really  to  give  what  a  man  asks  ?"  It  is  mani- 
fest that  on  the  answer  to  that  question  must  turn, 
after  all,  the  whole  value  of  prayer,  because  it  is 
impossil^le  that  for  any  long  period  of  time,  one 
man,  or  any  number  of  men,  should  keep  up  the 
habit  of  praying,  going  through  the  form  of  pre- 
senting petitions  to  a  Being  that  can  not  answer. 
It  is  the  very  conviction  that  God  does  answer  that 
makes  the  subjective  effect  of  praj^er  possible. 
The  elevation  of  the  heart  that  comes  from  p'ray- 
ing  comes  because  men  believe  that  God  hears 
prayer  and  answers  prayer.  If  men  did  not  believe 
that,  they  woidd  stop  praying,  and  the  subjective 
benefit  would  go.  ^Ve  will  not  conceal,  we  ought 
not  to  conceal,  the  fact  that  in  our  day,  men  have 
found  difficulty  in  believing  that  God  hears  and 
answers  prayer.  "While  they  are  ready  to  admit  a 
God  and  a  just  God  and  a  merciful  God,  they  also 
have  imagined  that  that  God  was  so  fettered  that 
He  could  not  answer  the  prayers  of  His  creatures ; 
that,  at  least,  one  whole  class  of  prayers  are  use- 
less.    "While  we  may  ask  Him  for  spiritual  bless- 


54         THE    CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE    OF   PRAYER. 

ings,  for  forgiveness  of  our  sins,  foi  strength  to 
resist  temptation,  yet  when  we  go  beyond  that  and 
ask  God  for  rain,  for  instance,  we  are  asking  some- 
thing which  God  can  not  supply. 

Let  ns  examine  this.  The  ground  of  the  objec- 
tion is,  the  TJnchangeableness  of  Law.  In  our  day, 
in  the  discoveries  that  we  liave  made,  the  convic- 
tion has  come,  beyond  what  it  was  in  any  previous 
age,  that  the  entire  reahn  of  nature  is  subfect  to  no 
caprice,  to  no  chance,  subject  really  to  no  change, 
but  subject  only  to  the  strong  arm  of  laio.  "\Ve 
have  examined  the  paths  far  enough  to  know,  and 
to  feel  safe  in  saying,  that  those  which  we  have  not 
examined  yet,  the  outlying  realms  of  Nature,  being 
a  part  of  ^Nature,  are  as  much  under  law  as  are  those 
we  have  examined  ;  that  there  is  not  a  dew-drop 
formed  and  falling,  not  a  rain-drop  that  descends 
upon  a  thirsty  field,  that  does  not  come  by  law ; 
not  a  cloud,  not  a  hazy  vapor  that  drifts  across  the, 
sky,  but  moves  by  law  ;  not  a  single  change  in  tem- 
perature, in  the  atmosphere  about  us,  but  comes 
by  law.  If  Ave  have  not  found  the  laws  yet,  if  we 
have  not  been  able  to  tabulate  and  formulate  and  • 
systematize,  yet,  nevertheless,  the  law  is  there. 
The  objection  is  that  when  we  ask  God  for  certain 
blessings  of  body,  for  rain,  for  instance,  or  for  the 
gift  of  health,  or  for  a  prosperous  voyage  at  sea,  or 


THE    CIIlllSTIAX    UOCTllIXE    OF    TKAYKK.  5j 

for  deliverance  from  plague  or  storm,  we  are  as7t:ing 
God  to  change  Jits  law. 

KoAV,  as  a  Christian  accepts  the  unchaugeableness 
of  God  as  one  basis  for  Prayer,  so,  also,  must  he 
accept  tlie  nnchangeableness  of  Law  as  another 
basis  for  Prayer.  If  yon  give  him  a  Avorld  of 
chance,  a  ■world  where  things  go  by  caprices,  then 
he  can  no  more  pray  with  any  hope  of  being 
answered  than  ho  can  pray  to  a  capricious  God. 
lie  must  have  a  basis  of  lixed  law  to  stand  npon, 
or  he  can  not  pray. 

This  other  objection  turns  itself,  as  we  shall  lind 
when  we  examine  it,  into  one  of  the  very  grounds 
on  whicli  prayer  stands.  For  what  is  Law?  A 
very  few  moments'  careful  thouglit  will  show  any 
man  that  law  is  not  a  power,  it  is  merely  the 
formula  by  which  we  express  the  action  of  a  pow- 
er. We  see  certain  causes  produce  certain  effects 
uniformly ;  we  say  it  is  the  law  that  the  cause 
should  be  followed  by  the  effect.  We  put  down 
the  law,  we  formulate  it ;  but  the  law  is  not  the 
poM'er.  There  is  no  poiver  that  we  know  of  at  all 
in  i^Taturc ;  but  when  there  is  L'nity  of  Law  (and 
our  Science  is  teaching  us  that  very  fact),  that  pre- 
supposes and  takes  for  granted  Unity  also  of  Power. 
This  power  that  acts,  and  acts  in  these  Avays,  acts 
in  a  method  which  wc  tabulate  and  formulate,  and 


50         THE    CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE    OF    PRAYER. 

call  law,  is  wind  ?  Well,  Science  does  not  know  ! 
It  deals  with  ^p/<e«c»me?trt,  and  can  deal  with  nothing 
else.  It  deals  with  what  you  can  see  and  handle 
and  analyze.  Powers  escape  it,  and  escape  it 
utterly.  There  is  no  knowledge  except  of  the 
things  we  see.  Appearances,  plienoinena  are  all 
that  Science  deals  with,  and  our  hest  wisdom  in 
Science  has  been  in  our  modern  days,  to  know  that 
fact  and  accept  it.  In  the  old  days,  men  sought  to 
break  through  the  Avails  of  the  material  and  get  out 
into  the  broad  ocean  beyond;  and  instead  of  search- 
ing what  they  could,  examining  what  was  in  their 
hands,  and  discovering  Avhat  was  near,  they  went 
far  reaches  to  discover  the  undiscoverable,  to  com- 
prehend the  incomprehensible,  to  find  what  can 
not  be  found.  So,  their  science  was  limited,  their 
advance  was  checked.     I^Tot  until 

"  Tlie  broad-browed  Verulam, 
The  first  of  those  who  know,'' 

taught  men  to  be  content  witli  their  own  small- 
ness,  content  to  sit  down  inside  their  own  walls  as 
humble  interpreters  of  Nature,  have  we  been 
able  to  advance  in  real  Science,  and  make  progress 
in  genuine  knowledge.  That  progress  has  been 
made  by  the  acceptance  of  the  fact  that  2>h<^nomena> 
are  all  we  can  know ;  the  jpower  lies  behind.     It 


THE    CHRISTIAN    DOCTKIXE    OF   PRAYER.         57 

was  to  that  power  the  heathen  cried.  It  is  to  that 
power,  men  always  instinctively  cry  in  tlieir  last 
distress.  The  Christian  names  that  power,  God — 
God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  God  the  Holy  Ghost, 
the  power  that  moves  and  rules  ;  and  when  we  talk 
of  law,  we  mean  simply  God's  orderly  working, 
that  is  all :  the  way  in  which  God  rules  His  great 
household,  the  regular  order  lie  has  established  for 
His  worlds.  The  father  in  his  house  may  to-day 
establish  a  certain  set  of  rules :  at  such  an  hour  there 
will  be  the  morning,  at  such  an  liour  the  mid-day, 
at  such  an  hour  the  evening  meal,  at  such  an  hour 
the  child  shall  go  to  bed,  at  such  an  hour  he  shall 
rise,  at  sueli  an  liour  lie  sliall  take  his  bath,  at  such 
an  hour  he  shall  have  his  lessons.  The  father  may 
arrange  all  that,  and  that  is  the  Law.  But  the 
child  would  make  a  mistake — a  mistake  made  some- 
times by  men  called  philosophers — should  he  im- 
agine that  those  laws  were  laws  for  the  father, 
binding  the  father  as  well  as  binding  him;  if  he 
mistake  the  order  by  which  the  father  governs  his 
household  for  a  power  outside  the  father.  Law 
sits  enthroned  in  the  bosom  of  God.  There  is  her 
eternal  home,  and  she  expresses  herself  throughout 
all  nature,  the  voice  of  God.  The  j)lanets  move 
in  their  mighty  courses  by  law  ;  the  green  grass- 
blades  spring  up  in  the  spring  days  by  law ;  the 


58        THE    CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE   OF   PRAYER 

tide  sweeps  inward  from  the  sea  and  thunders  up 
the  quaking  sands  by  law.  By  law  the  constella- 
tions flame  and  burn ;  the  little  firefly  dances  in  the 
summer  evening  and  emits  his  gleaming  spark  by 
law.  Law  rules  everywhere,  man's  body  and  man's 
soul,  and  in  the  iraghty  arms  of  law,  man  rests 
secure.  Wjq  do  not  depreciate  law ;  Ave  do  not  seek 
to  make  it  at  all  uncertain  ;  we  only  declare  it  to  be 
the  expression  of  God's  will — not  superior  to  God, 
but  the  handmaid  of  God. 

Of  that  law,  we  see  only  a  part ;  we  can  not  see 
how  its  enactments  modify  and  arrange  themselves. 
But  even  we  can  bring  down  a  higher  law  and  sus- 
pend a  lower. 

There  are,  for  instance,  the  laws  of  chemistry 
and  the  laws  of  natality — one  evidently  a  law  of  a 
higher  nature,  and  the  other  of  a  lower.  N'ow, 
whenever  the  tAvo  touch,  the  laws  of  vitality  will 
invariably  modify  and  sometimes  suspend  the  laws 
of  chemistry.  You  may,  for  instance,  subject  a 
living  body  to  a  heat  which  will  actually  destroy 
the  texture  of  a  dead  body.  A  man  may  sit  in  an 
atmosphere  raised  to  a  point  which  will  boil  dead 
flesh,  and  may  do  it  as  a  means  of  health  ;  it  is 
done  daily.  Again,  man  by  his  will  suspends  the 
laws,  as  we  call  them,  of  mere  matter.  I  never  lift 
my  hand  without  suspending  the  law  of  gravitation. 


THE    CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE    OF   PRAYER.  59 

I  annihilate  for  the  time  l)eing  the  laAv  as  far  as  n»y 
hand  is  concerned. 

AVe  nmst  recognize  this  fact,  that  there  are  these 
grades  of  hi-w,  and  that  the  higlier  huv  when  it 
impinges  npon  the  lower  either  changes  it  by  modi- 
fication, or  suspends  it  for  the  time  being  entirely. 
When,  therefore,  one  says  God  can  not  answer 
prayer,  because  He  will  break  His  oM'n  law  in  a 
particular  case,  he  is  speaking  too  shallow  a  thought. 
Take,  for  instance,  the  very  matter  of  rain,  <if  which 
I  have  spoken.  It  has  been  said  that  if  God  should 
send  a  shower  at  the  request  of  a  particular  neigh- 
borhood. He  could  not  do  it  without  deranging  the 
balance  of  the  world,  and,  in  consequence,  the 
balance  of  the  Universe.  Well,  suppose  not.  What 
of  it  ?  Is  it  not  in  God's  power  to  suspend  a  lower 
law,  since  I  can  do  it  ?  I  can  not  build  a  house  ;  I 
can  not  put  a  brick  in  its  place  in  the  wall  ;  I  can 
not  lift  a  stone  into  a  tower  ;  I  can  not  build  or 
launch  a  ship ;  I  can  not  fell  a  tree  ;  I  can  not 
drain  a  marsh;  I  can  not  dig  a  canal;  I  can  not 
grade  a  railroad  ;  I  can  not  take  a  stone  and  cast  it 
into  the  sea,  without  changing  the  vjhole  balance  of 
the  Universe.  We  are  doing  it  every  day  ;  men  are 
all  the  time  doing  it,  and  have  been  since  the  world 
was  created.  Displace  one  particle  of  matter,  and 
you  change  the  balance — not   perceptibly,  indeed, 


60         THE    CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE    OF   I'KAYER. 

l)ut  science  Avill  tell  you  cleurly  you  do.  Cast  a 
stone  into  the  air,  and  the  stone  attracts  the  earth, 
and  the  earth  attracts  the  stone ;  the  earth  is  jarred 
from  its  orbit  by  the  act  of  casting  that  stone  into 
the  atmosphere.  Boys  do  it  at  play,  and  it  nev'er 
occurs  to  them  that  they  are  in  any  danger  whatever 
of  disarranging  the  Universe.  The  very  water 
that  we  are  supplied  with  in  this  city  is  supplied 
by  a  breach  of  the  law  of  fluids.  Wo  have  deli- 
berately set  to  work  and  suspended  a  law  as  far  as 
the  Croton  supply  is  concerned;  we  have  lifted  the 
Avater  up  and  beyond  where  it  belongs. 

In  other  words,  AVill  itself  is  a  law ;  personal 
^s'ill  is  a  fact  that  you  can  not  leave  out  of  account. 
God  can  not  send  showers  in  answer  to  prayer,  one 
says,  and  yet  they  tell  us  that  we  can  bring  out 
cannon  and  ]3owder,  and  burn  ])owder  enough  in 
our  cannon  to  produce  a  shower  anywhere.  After 
every  great  battle  of  modern  days,  where  there  has 
been  sufficient  artillery  discharged,  there  is  always 
a  shower,  they  say.  If  man  can  bring  a  shower,  or  a 
storm  of  wind  and  lightning  and  thunder  and  rain 
to  any  spot,  it  surely  is  a  strange  notion  of  God's 
sovereignty  over  His  universe  to  suppose  that  He 
can  not  do  as  much  as  we  can  without  endangering 
His  universe. 

But  wc  will  leave  that  and  take  up  another  ob- 


TJIK    ClIlilSTIAX    DOCTRINE    OF    riiAYEK.         01 

jectioii.  It  lias  been  said  that  God  could  not 
answer  t)nc  man's  prayer  without  interfering  with 
another  man's  good.  For  instance,  two  nations  are 
at  war  ;  l)oth  of  them  are  praying  for  victory;  God 
can  not  give  to  one  a  victory  without  denying  it  to 
the  other ;  therefore  it  is  best  to  suppose  that 
God  answers  neither,  but  lets  the  case  be  decided 
by  the  most  powerful  artillery  and  the  strongest 
battalions. 

IS'ow,  is  there  any  real  difficulty  in  4his  case  ?  It 
only  comes,  the  supposed  difficulty,  from  a  misap- 
prehension of  what  prayer  really  is.  Xot  the  ask- 
ing or  demanding  of  something  for  one's  self  with- 
out terms,  but  the  asking  of  it  subject  always  to 
the  will  of  the  Moral  Governor  of  the  Universe — 
that  is  prayer.  "What  man  asks,  he  asks  always 
uiuler  a  broad  law,  and  that  broad  law  of  God's  is 
the  good  of  all  men  and  of  all  creation.  "When  I 
ask  for  rain  on  my  land,  I  ask  it  on  the  express 
condition  that  God  shall  give  it  if  it  seems  to  Ilim 
best  and  wisest.  When  a  nation  asks  God  for 
victory,  it  asks  for  that  victory  on  condition  that 
its  cause  be  good,  that  its  aims  1)0  just,  that  the 
preservation  and  safety  and  victory  of  that  land 
and  its  armies  be  for  the  glory  of  God,  for  the 
bringing  forth  of  His  Kingdom,  for  the  benefit  of 
His  Creatures,  for  the  good  of  all  the  World.    This 


62         THE    CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE    OF   PRAYER. 

is  the  law  of  prayer,  as  the  Lord  expressed  it  in 
Gethsemane,  kneeling  in  his  agony,  and  praying  that 
the  cnp  might  pass  from  Ilim,  "  and  yet  not  my 
will,  bnt  thine  he  done." 

Another  objection  is,  and  that  has  been  put  in 
familiar  shape,  that  there  is  no  tangible  result  to 
prayer,  that  there  never  has  been,  and  there  never 
can  be ;  that,  as  a  factor,  producing  results  in  the 
world,  we  must  leave  it  out  of  the  account.  Tyn- 
dall's  Prayer  Test  you  will  remember.  lie  propos- 
ed to  try  prayer  scientifically,  to  put  two  sets  of  sick 
people  in  two  different  wards  of  a  hospital,  and  for 
one  of  them  prescribe  calomel  and  quinine,  or  what- 
soever might  be  necessary  in  the  way  of  drugs,  and 
prayer,  to  be  taken  regularly.  In  the  other  ward  to 
prescribe  calomel,  (piinine,  and  other  things,  and 
leave  out  prayer.  In  the  end,  to  look  over  the  pa- 
tients, and  see  whether  the  omission  of  prayer  from 
the  medical  prescription  had  any  effect  at  all  on  the 
cure.  That  is  what  it  practically  amounted  to.  I 
would  take  just  here,  also,  the  very  baldest  ground, 
and  do  that  also  on  a  scientific  basis.  I  say  that 
since  the  world  began,  men  have  prayed  ;  I  say  that 
is  a  fact,  just  as  much  a  fact  as  that  men  have 
eaten  or  clothed  themselves.  From  all  quarters  of 
this  world  have  gone  up  appeals  to  Heaven.     The 


THE    CnmSTIAX   DOCTRINE   OF   PRAYER.         63 

cry  is  to  God ;  the  prayer  is  for  deliverance  or  safe- 
ty, from  the  creation  initil  to-night. 

Now,  am  I,  as  a  scientific  man,  to  leave  all  that 
out,  to  leave  out  uf  my  account  and  calculation  one 
iixed  phenomenon  uf  human  life  ?  ^^^hy,  on  the 
barest  Positive  Philosophy,  I  must  take  facts  as  they 
are ;  and  prayer  is  a  fact,  a  fact  of  life,  a  persistent 
fact,  a  universal  fact,  a  steady  fact,  always  there. 
Shall  I  find  no  place  for  this  fact  ?  Shall  I  say  that 
the  world  has  had  no  residts  from  that,  that  to-day 
the  M'orld  would  have  been  what  it  is,  had  there 
been  no  prayer  1  Is  that  scientific,  to  ride  out  this 
great  phenomenon  of  life,  and  say  the  result  would 
have  been  just  the  same  without  it  ?  Why,  on  the 
baldest,  barest,  and  merest  materialism,  on  a  cold 
scientific  treatment  of  the  subject,  it  woidd  be  un- 
philosophical  in  me  to  take  any  such  ground  as  that. 
The  world  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  the  result  of 
powers  that  have  worked  in  the  world  since  the 
first — powers  that  have  disappeared  sometimes,  and 
phenomena  that  have  ruled  and  gone  ;  but  we  must 
take  them  all  into  account  to  explain  the  world  as  it 
is,  and  Ave  must  take  this.  Just  see  how  impossible 
it  would  be  otherwise.  Take  the  case  of  the  sick 
people.  How  is  it  possible  to  take  twenty  sick  peo- 
ple, and  shut  them  up  in  the  ward  of  a  hospital  out- 
side of  prayer  ?     You  may  build  a  roof  over  them 


64         THE    CHRISTIAN    DOCTRINE    OF   PRAYER. 

to  shelter  tliem  from  the  sun  or  the  rain,  but  you 
can  not  roof  them  in  from  prayer.  Why,  I  pray 
for  the  sick  every  day  these  Lent  days ;  we  are 
j)raying  in  all  our  churches  for  the  sick  all  the  world 
over.  Can  we  put  in  a  ^parenthesis  and  say  that  we 
omit  from  our  prayer  those  sick  people  on  whom 
Dr.  Thomson  and  Prof.  Tyndall  are  trying  their  ex- 
j^eriments  ?  All  we  know  is,  that  prayer  is  a  factor 
of  human  life  itself,  as  eating,  drinking,  thinking, 
reading,  and  working  arc  factors  of  human  life,  and 
a  imiversal  factor,  from  which  no  man  can  be  ex- 
cluded, from  whose  effects  you  can  shut  in  no 
man. 

But  as  to  God's  giving  us  blessings  material  in 
answer  to  prayer,  there  is  this  further  thought  to  a 
man  who  believes  in  law :  when  he  looks  philoso- 
j^hically  at  the  phenomenon  of  prayer,  the  universal 
exercise  of  prayer,  and  then  sees  God's  blessings 
come,  and  how  they  come,  sees  sudden  deliverances, 
sees  unex]3ected  good,  sees  health  restored  where 
all  science  prophesied  death,  sees  life  given  when 
the  feet  were  already  on  the  crumbling  brink  of  the 
grave,  sees  strange  "  chances,"  as  we  call  them, 
come  to  men,  sees  wonderful  deliverances  wrought, 
what  is  ]iis  thought  ?  That  this  phenomenon  of 
prayer  is  a  part  of  the  imiversal  law  ;  that  God  takes 
that  into  account  as  all  the  rest ;  that  God  is  a  God 


THE   CURISTIAN   DOCTRINE   OF   PRAYER.  65 

that  will  be  entreated  ;  that  lie  has  planted  the  in- 
stinct in  the  heart  of  man  to  go  back  to  the  same 
source  from  which  he  came  ;  that  He  Himself  made 
prayer,  when  man  was  made,  a  part  of  man's  na- 
ture and  law. 

And  so,  looking  over  the  world,  we  can  not 
tell,  Is  it  prayer  that  produced  this,  or  is  it  not  ? 
This  power  is  like  all  other  powers — invisible. 
"  All  things,"  the  old  School-men  said,  "  go  out  into 
mystery."  So  goes  prayer.  You  can  not  gauge  it ; 
you  can  not  measure  it  ;  it  belongs  to  the  unseen 
forces. 

The  results  produced  by  prayer,  that  they  exist, 
that  they  are  strange,  that  they  are  wonderful,  I 
have  the  jjliilosophic  right  to  assume.  All  the  ex- 
pressions of  power  in  the  world  seen  are  expressions 
of  a  power  that  lies  behind,  unknown,  and  as  yet,  to 
us,  unapproachable,  except  through  prayer. 

"We  trace  to  its  ends  the  manifestation  of  Power, 
to  the  last  particle  or  atom  the  manifestation  of 
Force,     There  it  escapes  us,  and  we  are  lost. 

We  take,  then,  the  Christian  philosophy  of  exist- 
ence, that  the  material  clothes  the  innnaterial ;  that 
the  world  visible  is  the  expression  only  of  the  world 
invisible ;  that  the  body  is  simply  the  clothing  of 
the  soul.  As  we  believe  in  free  men,  we  believe  in 
a  free  God.     Let  us  take  our  Lord's  own  words  : 


66        THE   CHRISTIAIS'   DOCTRINE   OF   PRAYER. 

"  If  ye,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  to 
your  cliildren,  liow  much  more  shall  your  Father 
which  is  in  heaven  give  good  gifts  to  them  that  ask 
him." 

Science  confesses  itself  ignorant  of  all,  save  phe- 
nomena.  The  great  deeps  of  Life  and  Power  lie 
unsounded.  Knowledge  deals  with  shows,  Faith 
with  substances  and  realities.  Where  Science  stops, 
Kevelation  takes  us  up.  A  Will,  a  Person,  a  Heart 
lie  hehhv^ phenomena.  Out  of  the  roar  of  thetem- 
j^est,  out  of  the  crowding  evil,  out  of  the  iron  clasp 
of  pitiless  and  senseless  matter,  and  its  apparent 
power,  we  appeal  to  AVisdom,  Will,  and  Goodness, 
and^^nr?/,  exercising  "  the  right  of  petition,"  which 
belongs  to  Humanity  in  the  way  the  Lord  taught 


' '  For  what  are  men  better  tlian  sheep  or  goats, 
Which  nourish  a  blind  life  within  the  brain, 
If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  hands  of  prayer, 
Both  for  themselves,  and  those  wlio  call  them  friend. 
For  so,  the  whole  round  earth  is,  every  way, 
Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God." 


MOEAL    RESPOi^SIBILITY 


PHYSICAL    LAW. 


BY 

The  Rev.  E.  A.  WASHBURN,  D.D., 

KscTOB  OF  Calvary  Chubcii,  New-York. 


^ 


MORAL   RESPONSIBILITY  AND    PHYSICAL  LAW. 


"  Let  no  man  say,  when  he  is  tempted,  I  am  tempted  of  God  ; 
for  God  can  not  be  tempted,  neither  temptetli  he  any  man  ; 
bat  every  man  is  tempted  when  he  is  draAvn  away  of  his  own 
lust  and  enticed."— St.  James  3  :  13,  14. 

It  is  the  reasonable  faith  of  Christian  men,  my 
friends,  that  while  the  world  of  nature  and  mind 
is  open  to  our  searching,  there  are  truths  essential  to 
our  duty,  which  are  planted  by  our  Maker  in  the  con- 
science of  all,  and  can  not  be  shaken  by  the  specu- 
lative strifes  of  the  time.  Science  may  pry  into  its 
nebulous  fields,  but  the  fixed  stars  give  their  nn- 
chanrnng  light.  In  that  conviction,  I  have  chosen 
this  old  question  of  moral  responsibility,  as  it  bears 
on  certain  theories  of  natural  law,  which  are  to-day 
put  forth  as  the  newest  fruit  of  our  research.  I 
honor  science,  so  long  as  it  is  what  the  master  of  ex- 
perimental philosophy  claimed,  the  interpreter  of 
nature,  and  I  gladly  accept  all  it  has  revealed  of  the 
secrets  of  life  ;  but  when  it  so  treads  beyond  its  o^vn 
sphere  as  to  deny  any  reality  above  nature,  and  to 


TO  MORAL  RESPONSIBILITY 

change  man  into  the  slave  of  physical  forces,  it  is 
wise  for  us  to  learn  a  nobler  knowledge  than  can 
be  gained  by  the  dissecting-knife  or  the  microscope. 
If  there  be  any  whom  I  can  thus  help  toward  the 
study  of  their  own  consciences,  and  that  Christian 
faith  which  is  linked  most  closely  with  this  moral 
truth,  I  shall  be  glad  indeed. 

In  this  view,  I  offer  you  a  sentence  from  the  epis- 
tle of  James,  which  gives  us  the  guiding  line  of  all 
Christian  teaching  on  this  subject.  These  words  may 
have  been  written  for  Jewish  converts,  who  clung 
to  the  Pharisaic  dogma  that  suffering  was  the  pen- 
alty of  inherited  sin ;  or  as  a  rebuke  to  some  who 
excused  their  apostasy  on  the  plea  of  irresistible 
temptation.  But  our  apostle  answers  with  plain 
logic  that  to  call  sin  fatality  is  to  call  God  its  author, 
and  to  belie  our  own  self-knowledge.  Here,  then, 
we  have  set  before  us  the  oue  only  method  in  which 
we  can  study  aright  the  problem  of  moral  evil. 
It  is  in  the  fact  of  responsibility  as  revealed  in  our 
own  consciences.  And  it  is,  when  any  class  of 
thinkers  has  lost  sight  of  this  personal  truth,  and 
reasoned  from  purely  theoretical  views  of  the  na- 
ture of  God  or  of  human  life,  that  the  system  of  ne- 
cessity has  arisen.  There  are  two  results,  to  one  of 
which  such  a  theory  has  always  led.     The  theolog- 


AND    PHYSICAL    LAM'.  71 

ical  view  has  traced  the  ground  of  evil  to  the  eter- 
nal decrees  of  God,  and  has  made  man  its  necessary 
inheritor,  while  it  has  contradicted  itself  by  calling 
liini  responsible.     The  philosophic  school,  from  the 
same    starting-point,   has    more   logically   affirmed 
that  there  is  no  moral  evil  at  all.     That  falsehood 
has  appeared  sometimes  in  an  ideal  pantheism  like 
that  of  Spinoza ;  sometimes  in  ^lie  guise  of  physical 
law.     I  do  not  linger  on  the  more  abstract  systems. 
It  is  enough  if  I  show  you  their  connnon  ground. 
Let  men  lose  the  moral  fact  of  accountability,  and 
whatever  their  religious  faith,  they  mnst  end  in  one 
shape  or  another  of  fatalism.     ISTor  do  I  hesitate  to 
say  that  the  revolting  doctrine  so  often  taught  from 
Christian  pulpits  has  gone  far  toward  the  growth  of 
the  modern  materialism.     It  was  the  saying  of  Plu- 
tarch, the  devoutest  of  heathen,  that  he  would  rath- 
er believe  in  no  God  than  in  a  Saturn,  who  ate  his 
own  children  ;  and  it  is  not  strange,  when  men  have 
been  called  the  victims  of  a  hopeless  and  helpless 
destiny,  that  they  should  deny  any  responsibility  at 
all.     Yet  as  we  are  in  little  danger  to-day  of  that 
harsh  creed,  and  much  more  of  the  plausible  fatal- 
ism which  wears  the  name  of  science,  I  shall  turn 
directly  to  the  field  of  modern  incj^uiry. 

I  state,  then,  at  once  the  line  of  our  argument. 
It  is  my  purpose  to  show  from  experience  that 


72  MORAL   RESPONSIBILITY 

our  responsibility  for  our  actions  is  an  acknowl- 
edged fact ;  and  that  in  this  fact  there  is  given 
us  the  assurance  of  a  moral  law,  and  of  our  power 
of  choice.  We  meet  here,  at  the  threshold,  our 
champions  of  necessity.  They  claim  that  through- 
out the  universe,  in  every  form  of  inorganic  or 
organic  life,  in  crystal  or  plant,  in  the  instinct  of 
the  brute,  or  the  mechanism  of  our  own  bodies, 
there  is  a  sure,  irresistible  law ;  and  thus  in  the 
soul  of  man,  if  we  may  use  so  old-fashioned  and 
unscientific  a  word,  is  found  the  same  miA'arying 
order.  Our  nunds  are  but  a  function  of  the  gray 
matter  of  the  brain ;  "  without  phosj^horus  no 
thought,"  in  the  phrase  of  a  modern  sage;  and 
what  our  shallow  morality  has  dreamed  of  as  Avill 
is  nothing  but  a  j^assive  obedience  to  our  desires. 
Such  is  the  claim  I  would  examine  by  the  clearest 
test.  Our  positive  science  is  wont  to  boast  that 
it  rests  on  fact,  and  turns  away  with  impatient 
scorn  from  speculative  reasoning.  I  do  not  doubt 
that  the  rebuke  is  sometimes  just;  and  if  there  be  a 
truth  I  wish  most  to  urge,  it  is  that  we  are  not  to 
spin  cobwebs  here  out  of  the  bowels  of  theology,  but 
to  deal  with  realities.  I  accept  the  challenge,  and 
shall  leave  it  to  you  to  judge  whether  the  Christian 
moralist  or  these  practical  sages  are  the  theorists. 
What,  tlieu,  is  the  character  of  these  facts  which 


AND   rilVSICAL   LAW.  Y3 

"\ve  arc  to  examine  ?  I  Leg  your  special  atten- 
tion to  tlii.s  point,  for  it  involves  the  "wliolc  in- 
quiry. ]t  is  the  method  of  our  champions  of 
physical  necessity  to  reason  from  the  cases  oi 
natural  W'eakness,  or  of  social  disorder,  M-hcre  the 
question  of  responsihility  becomes  obscure,  to  the 
conclusion  that  there  is  no  freedom.  Yet  that 
is  to  take  for  granted  the  "whole  question.  Here- 
after, M-e  are  to  consider  these  darker  sides  of  the 
subject ;  but  at  the  outset,  "\ve  arc  not  talking  of 
idiots,  or  insane,  or  diseased,  or  undeveloi)ed  minds, 
but  of  a  knowledge  within  the  reach  of  every  intel- 
ligent man.  "We  turn,  then,  to  this  evidence  of  the 
social  conscience.  There  are  certain  laws  of  ac- 
tion, not  notions  of  your  mind  or  mine,  but  re- 
cognized by  all  in  daily  life.  We  nse  the  words 
merit,  demerit,  apjDrobation,  shame,  remorse,  in  onr 
common  speech,  and  they  stand  for  a  reality  as 
clear,  as  undoubted,  as  when  we  speak  of  a  metal 
or  an  earth.  It  is  by  these  we  judge  of  the  char- 
acter of  men,  and  are  judged  in  turn.  Take  any 
out  of  a  thousand  examples.  What  is  merit  ?  A 
man  has  risked  his  life  for  the  protection  of  a  fel- 
low-man in  the  midst  of  a  plague,  while  thousands 
sought  their  own  safety ;  and  the  "verdict  of  all  pro- 
nounces it  an  act  of  unselfish  nobleness.  You  have 
sacrificed  vour  cliances  of  wealth  or   office  in   the 


74:  '.         MORAL  RESPONSIBILITY 

discharge  of  an  honorable  duty.  Your  own  con- 
science witnesses  to  the  character  of  the  deed,  that 
it  is  not  like  a  pleasure  of  the  palate,  or  even  of  in- 
tellectual effort ;  but  purer,  sweeter,  higher  than  all ; 
the  happiness  of  f  uliilling  the  law  of  right.  What  is 
demerit  ?  You  have  wronged  an  innocent  man  in 
a  moment  of  selfish  passion  ;  you  have  shrunk  from 
the  defense  of  a  just  cause  through  fear  of  losing 
your  reputation.  The  verdict  of  the  common  con- 
science condemns  you  ;  and  when  you  awaken  from 
your  self-delusion,  you  feel  a  shame  at  your  own 
act.  Analyze  now  these  judgments  of  tlie  moral 
faculty.  Each  witnesses  an  obligation,  and  with 
it  a  responsibility.  There  could  be  no  merit  or 
demerit  if  there  were  no  choice.  A  stone  feels  no 
remorse  when  it  crushes  a  man ;  a  brute  feels  no 
remorse  Avhen  he  tears  his  victim.  AVe  feel  regret, 
but  no  remorse,  when  we  have  done  an  injury  with- 
out design.  If  we  were  creatures  who  must  obey  a 
reigning  desire,  Avhere  coul  1  be  the  difference  be- 
tween duty  and  impulse,  virtue  and  lust  ?  All  these 
would  be  empty  names.  I  shall  be  met  here  by  the 
old  cavil,  that  this  standard  of  right  and  wrong  va- 
ries with  different  times  and  races,  and  therefore  all 
these  are  notions  of  our  education.  But  I  reply 
that  the  variation  does  not  disprove  the  principle. 
It  is  allowed  by  thqse  who  deny  any  innate  ideas 


AND   PHYSICAL   LAW.  iD 

of  morality,  that  education  leads  always  to  agree- 
ment in  regard  to  the  laws  of  moral  action ;  and 
this  is  to  admit  all  we  seek.  There  are  thousands 
who  will  lie,  or  steal,  or  kill,  and  there  is  sophistry 
enough  as  to  the  decision  of  special  cases ;  but  ly- 
ing, theft,  and  murder  are  wrongs  in  every  code. 
Education  develops  conscience,  but  it  can  not  create 
it.  The  child  can  not  judge  of  distance  save  by 
experience ;  but  the  faculty  of  eyesight  is  the  gift 
of  nature.  It  is  enough  that  I  rest  the  evidence 
there.  But  if  there  be,  beyond  such  moralists  who 
differ  from  us  only  in  words,  any  who  really  claim 
that  there  can  be  no  higher  law  than  that  of  our 
sensual  desires,  I  do  not  reason  with  them ;  I  leave 
them  to  their  brutishness,  and  content  myself  with 
the  decision  of  the  social  conscience. 

In  this  witness  of  our  real  experience,  we  reach 
the  knowledge  of  what  we  mean  by  moral  law. 
This  priiiciplo  of  responsibility  reveals  to  us  that 
there  is  an  order  higher  than  that  of  the  physical 
world.  And  thus  we  lay  the  axe  at  the  roat  of  that 
pretended  science  of  nature  which  denies  our  free- 
dom, on  the  ground  that  wq  are  subjects  of  the  same 
omnipotent  power,  whether  it  act  more  coarsely  in 
the  crystal,  or  more  cunningly  in  the  nervous  fila- 
ments of  the  brain ;  that  our  ^vill  is  only  the  seem- 
ing choice  of  a  creature,  who  can  not  act  without 


76  MORAL   RESPONSIBILITY 

motive,  and  that  motive  always  tlie  strongest  pas- 
sion. It  is  from  an  ntter  denial  of  tlie  moral  facts 
we  have  studied  that  the  error  springs.  We  admit 
that  no  creatnre  is  independent  on  law ;  but  we 
affirm  that,  of  the  very  cliaracter  of  moral  law, 
it  is  not  a  compulsory  power  as  in  nature ;  it  is 
a  power  that  pervades,  influences,  warns,  yet  is 
and  must  be  determined  by  our  personal  choice. 
Let  us  turn  to  a  few  examples,  which  will  prove 
more  than  all  general  reasoning.  I  will  take  my 
illustration,  first,  from  the  striking  law  of  the 
magnetic  needle.  You  know  the  marvelous  power 
by  which  the  bit  of  steel  within  the  box  j)oints  the 
seaman  through  the  darkness  to  the  unchanging 
pole  ;  and  some  of  you  may  have  studied  the  princi- 
ple of  its  variations,  so  puzzling  to  the  mariner  in 
former  days,  as  ho  steered  through  unknown  seas, 
and  found  his  faithful  guide  seemingly  untrue ; 
yet  now  the  Aariations  are  known  to  be  only  a  part 
of  the  same  law.  Compare  the  physical  fact  with 
the  moral.  We  often  use  this  illustration  of  the 
power  of  conscience,  as  it  points  to  the  polestar  of 
duty ;  but  we  must  not  in  the  image  forget  the 
greater  contrast.  I  will  take  the  example  of  a  man 
of  sincere  moral  feeling,  yet  in  whom  a  self-indulgent 
habit  has  at  times  weakened  the  might  of  conscience ; 
I  will  suppose  him  in  one  of  those  critical  hours 


AND   niYSICAL    LAW.  77 

such  as  come  to  most  of  us  in  lialf-formed  youth, 
tempted  l)y  tlie  love  of  pleasure  or  by  evil  asso- 
ciates to  sensual  crime ;  it  is  a  fearful  struggle, 
for  he  knows  the  right,  he  recognizes  the  dan- 
ger, the  motives  of  true  action,  hut  tlie  allure- 
ment is  strong ;  he  wavers,  he  pauses,  hut  at  last 
with  one  mighty  effort  and  a  prayer  for  divine 
help,  he  says,  "  I  will  not  yield  to  sin."  Analyze 
now  this  act  of  the  will.  Was  the  force  that  shook 
his  better  desire  like  that  which  sways  the  nee- 
dle I  AVas  the  motion  that  at  last  conquered,  a 
compulsion  ?  Was  the  law  of  duty  ^-ariable  under 
certain  conditions,  as  the  oscillation  of  the  magnet 
is  determined  by  the  pole  ?  To  ask  this  is  to  show 
you  the  difference  between  physical  and  moral 
power. 

But  consider  another  case,  where  you  perceive  a 
more  subtle  natural  force — that  of  chemical  affinity. 
Ton  shall  take  two  cups  of  hydrochloric  and  nitric 
acid,  in  which  some  gold  has  been  immersed ;  each  re- 
mains inert ;  but  mix  them,  and  the  gold  combines 
at  once  with  the  chlorine.  What  is  this  force  ? 
Has  the  chlorine  any  moral  choice  of  the  metal  ? 
Turn  now  to  another  case  of  affinity  for  gold. 
A  man  has  grown  in  the  selfish  lust  of  gain  for 
years,  yet  thus  far  he  has  done  no  act  of  dishonesty ; 
his  moral  capacity  has  remained  partly  inert,  as  the 


78  MOEAL   RESPONSIBILITY 

acids  before  the  mixture ;  Ivat  by  and  by  some  cup 
of  business  cliances  is  suddenly  thrown  into  his 
grasping  life ;  a  grand  fortune  is  offered  to  his  covet- 
ous heart,  if  he  will  only  take  the  risk  of  a  fraud  ; 
he  may  have  some  slight  twinges  of  conscience, 
but  they  vanish  before  the  bait.  What,  now^,  is 
the  motive  that  decides  his  act  ?  Is  the  affinity  for 
the  gold  an  irresistible  law,'  like  that  of  the  acid  ? 
Surely  I  need  not  say  that  to  talk  of  necessity  here 
is  absurd.  His  lust  is  the  product  of  his  own  self- 
nourished  habit,  and  he  is  responsible  for  the  guilt. 
Such  illustrations  can  be  multiplied  without  end. 
Each  of  us  has  known  in  his  experience  these 
battles  of  the  selfish  passions  with  the  law  of  con- 
science ;  and  it  is  useless  to  reason  them  away  by  any 
bewildering  talk  of  natural  disease  or  vicious  educa- 
tion. We  fix  our  thought  on  these  plain  facts  of 
our  daily  life,  and  we  ask.  What  do  they  prove  ? 
They  prove  that  the  whole  argument  by  which  the 
necessitarian  claims  that  we  are  subject  to  moral  as 
to  physical  law  is  based  on  an  utter  misconception. 
Natural  force  and  moral  force  are  essentially  unlike. 
ISTatural  force  acts  wdthout  choice  ;  moral  force  in 
and  with  it.  ]^atm'al  force  compels ;  moral  force 
persuades,  l^atural  force  never  fails  under  given 
conditions  ;  moral  force  always  depends  on  the  per- 
sonal man.    It  does  not  matterwhether  the  theology 


AND    PHYSICAL    LAW,  79 

of  Edwards  or  the  psjcliology  of  Bain  afliriii  that, 
because  we  can  not  act  without  motives,  our  will 
must  obey  the  motive.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
necessary  motive.  You  may  as  well  talk  of  a  square 
circle.  "Appetite,"  in  the  words  of  Hooker,  "is 
the  mind's  solicitor,  the  will  is  the  mind's  controller." 
If  then,  my  friends,  I  have  so  made  the  truth 
clear  by  these  illustrations,  that  you  can  see  the  root 
of  all  sophistry  on  this  subject,  I  may  sum  it  in  a 
word.  This  is  the  law  of  responsibility.  This,  and 
this  alone,  gives  you  your  nobleness  above  all  lower 
creatures,  as  capable  of  moral  growth.  If  there  be 
no  such  responsibility,  there  is  no  real  difference 
between  sensual  lust  and  purity,  between  self-indul- 
gence and  self-sacrifice,  no  motive  for  duty,  no  \mr- 
posein  education,  no  standard  of  character,  no  room 
for  love,  or  honor,  or  justice,  or  goodness,  and  no^ 
social  law  save  force.  But  if  this  power  be  in  us, 
then  we  have  in  our  freedom  a  law  as  mighty  as  that 
which  sways  the  tides  of  the  sea,  yet  far  nobler,  be- 
cause it  acts  from  within,  and  is  seated  in  the  perso- 
nality of  the  man.  We  rise  here  to  the  sacred  truth 
which  the  religion  of  Christ  declares.  It  is  in  God 
we  see  the  law,  that  is  perfect  freedom.  He  is 
bound  by  the  necessity  of  His  holiness ;  He  can 
never  deny  Himself;  yet  in  the  fullest  meaning 
of    that   word,  He  is  a  law  unto  Himself,  unfet- 


So  JIOKAL   IIESPOXSIBILITY 

tei'od  ill  Ilis  moral  clioicc.  And  thus,  altliongli, 
as  sinful  beings,  Ave  can  not  claim  that  freedom, 
yet,  as  Augustine  has  said  in  his  stately  treatise  on 
the  will,  even  in  our  sin  Ave  recognize  this  moral 
capacity ;  our  sin  is  not  om*  nature,  hut  the  de- 
fect of  our  nature ;  Ave  are  made  for  the  Avillino* 
choice  of  holiness,  and  as  avc  live  in  obedience  to 
His  laAV,  Ave  groAV  toA\'ard  the  state  Avhere  our 
liberty  becomes  an  iuAvard,  abiding  character. 

Pardon  ]ue,  my  friends,  if  I  haA^e  dAvelt  too  long 
on  this  more  abstract  AacAV,  for  it  Avas  essential  to  lix 
the  truth  hrndy  at  the  outset.  AYe  have  studied 
the  cA'idence  of  conscience ;  Ave  are  noAV  to  study 
it  in  the  experience  of  real  life.  We  are  born 
Avith  this  mental  and  moral  constitution  into  a 
Avorld  Avlierc  Ave  Und  certain  conditions  of  our 
growth.  "\Ye  inherit,  first  of  all,  a  nature  derived, 
in  body  and  mind,  through  the  long  line  of  our 
j^arentage,  and  so  affected  by  its  influence,  that  the 
seeds  of  genius  or  of  mental  Aveakness,  tlie  inflnite 
shades  of  our  disposition,  are  an  inevitable  birth- 
right. IN^ot  only  the  book  of  revelation,  but  even 
that  science  which  scouts  Christian  truth,  confirms 
in  the  fresh  light  of  its  researches  tlie  doctrine  of 
original  sin,  the  great  race-fact  of  the  mental,  mo- 
ral, and  physical  disease  that  taints  the  body  of  hu- 
manity.    Let  me  indeed  be  clearly  understood.     I 


AND    riiYSlCAL    LAW.  81 

do  not  confoiiiul  ■\vitli  such  a  truth  tliat  notion  of  to- 
tal depravity,  a  nature  without  a  single  unselfish 
affection,  a  single  capacity  of  good,  in  which  a  false 
theology  and  the  fatalism  we  now  examine  agree. 
Ko,  I  maintain  the  view  whicli  conscience  as  well 
as  Scripture  witnesses,  that  evil  is  not  our  nature, 
hut  only  the  disease  of  oiu*  true  nature,  through 
Avhich  we  are  to  pass  l)y  the  purifying  power  of  God 
into  our  nobler  condition.  ]3ut,  again,  it  is  not  only 
by  this  inheritance  of  hirth  we  are  affected;  we  are 
to  a  vast  degree  shaped,  in  the  whole  process  of  our 
life,  hy  the  law  of  social  circumstance.  Climate, 
soil,  education,  have  their  influence  on  the  man,  and 
none  can  escape  these  conditions.  To  one,  his  ex- 
istence from  ijifancy  is  in  the  luxury  of  a  palace, 
to  another  a  battle  with  poverty ;  one  is  a  savage 
in  his  wilds,  another  is  nursed  in  the  arts  of  refined 
civilization ;  one  has  the  pure  training  of  a  Christian 
home,  another  has  grown  up  in  the  dens  of  vice. 

What  bearing  have  these  facts,  then,  on  our  moral 
responsibility  ?  Xone  is  so  absurd  as  to  doubt  that 
they  have  much  to  do  with  the  formation  of  the 
man.  But  this  is  not  the  fpiestion.  Do  they  anni- 
liilate  moral  freedom  ?  This  is  the  position  of  the 
fatalist.  Is  it  true  ?  To  suppose  it,  is  to  deny  our 
experience,  as  he  has  already  denied  conscience. 
Each  of  uSj  whatever  the  elements  that  have  gone 


82  MORAL   KESPONSIBILITY 

into  liis  being,  is  an  individual  person.  His  person- 
ality is  seated  in  his  will,  and  life  is  the  condition  of 
his  activity.  Tliis  is  the  very  constitution  of  a  mo- 
ral creature,  that  he  should  he  placed  in  a  state 
where  lie  can  find  tlie  growth  he  needs ;  and  none 
can  conceive  of  growth  without  it.  We  may  imag- 
ine an  ideal  world,  where  there  arc  no  diseases  to 
blight  the  body  and  no  temptations  to  vex  the  peace 
of  its  sinless  dwellers  ;  but  this  earth,  with  its  min- 
gled sunshine  and  storm,  its  tropic  bloom,  yet  its 
rocky  soil  that  provokes  labor,  its  gold  and  iron  that 
must  be  digged  from  the  bowels  of  the  mine — this 
is  the  home  of  Imman  creatures.  IS^one  of  us  fails 
to  recognize  this  fact  in  material  or  mental  activity. 
The  brute  can  never  pass  beyond  the  limits  of  cli- 
mate and  zone  that  define  his  place  in  nature.  But 
the  highest  achievements  of  man  are  earned  in  the 
battle  with  natural  forces.  "What  gives  the  hardy 
farmer  of  New-England  his  manhood  above  the 
Cingalese  who  eats  his  bread-fruit,  and  lies  in  the 
sun,  but  this  need  of  struggle?  Who  have  won 
such  triumphs  in  the  sphere  of  intellectual  toil  as 
the  men  who  have  wrestled  with  the  stern  hin- 
drances of  early  years  ?  What  is  the  life  of  man 
from  birth  to  death  but  this  resistance  of  the  vital 
unit  ao-ainst  the  elements,  that  always  tend  to  de- 
compose it  ?     But  it  is  surely  a  nobler  example  of 


AND    PHYSICAL    LAW.  83 

tlie  same  law  \vc  ret'ogiiize  in  our  moral  proj^ress. 
That  axiom  of  the  master  of  science,  "  Nature  is 
conquered  by  obeying  it,"'  only  reaches  its  highest 
meaning  in  the   sphere  of   our  spiritual   struggle. 
Sin  has  entered   into  the  world  l)y  the  condition  of 
our  freedom,  and  its  manifold,  accumulated  forms 
have    left    their  curse  on  the  history  of  the  race. 
Yet  there   is  no  fatality   in  this.     It  is   the   best 
proof  that  a  divine  Providence,  not  fate,  orders  the 
life  of  man,  since  l)y  the  same   constitution  -which 
entails  disease,  insanity,  vicious  dispositions,  we  in- 
herit also  the  germs  of  intellect  and  moral  power. 
We  do  not  charge  on  God  or  nature  what  is  the 
product  of  our  own  self-will ;  nay,  we  rejoice  that 
in  His  goodness   the  diseases  and  hindrances  of  na- 
ture become  the  conditions  of  our  holiness.     Our 
lot  does  not  infringe  on  the  fact  of  personal  respon- 
sibility ;    it  quickens,  it  strengthens  it;   it  teaches 
Avhat    human  life  is  meant  to  teach,   that  we  are 
pl.i^cd  in  a  state  where,  if  we  strive  with  faith  and 
energy,  we  work  with  Him  who  brings  good  out  of 
all  evil.     Am  I  not  speaking  here  of  facts  all  recog- 
nize ?     Is  there  a  single  virtue  that  has  not  been 
the  fruit  of  such  struggle  ?     Is  there  a  single  na- 
tural infirmity  that  has  not  been  changed  into  a  no- 
ble quality  ?     Are  not  the  highest  examples  of  pu- 
rity, of  courage,  of  self-sacritice  among  those  who 


84  MORAL    KESPONSIBILITY 

have  wrestled  with  their  own  passions  and  the  evil 
world  ?  If  it  he  not  so,  then  our  life  is  a  riddle, 
and  holiness  a  dream. 

In  this  light,  we  reach  the  fullness  of  the  tnith 
which  the  Gospel  of  Christ  reveals  of  the  nature  of 
our  obligation  and  the  promise  of  a  divine  grace. 
We  are  free,  but  such  is  our  constitution  that  our 
freedom  must  pass  bj  degrees,  according  to  our  use 
or  our  al)use,  into  a  settled  state  of  the  character. 
We  are  free  ;  but  we  are  not  left  alone  in  our  life  of 
stmggle.  There  is  a  Holy  Spirit,  the  source  of  all 
wisdom  and  strength,  in  whom  we  live  and  have  our 
being ;  and  if  we  act  in  obedience  to  His  laws,  M'e 
are  in  harmony  with  His  co-working  grace,  as  the 
single  wave  moves  with  the  tides  of  the  ocean. 
This  is  the  promise  on  Avhich  we  rest,  Christian 
believers !  This  is  the  sacred  truth  that  we  hold 
when  we  adore  God,  our  Father,  our  Redeemer,  our 
Sanctifier !  But  it  is  a  truth  alike  for  our  warning. 
If  we  surrender  to  the  temptation  of  our  selUsh 
passions  and  of  the  world  around  us,  we  pass  at 
length  into  the  slavery  of  nature;  our  desires  be- 
come our  masters,  our  evil  habits  become  fastened 
on  us  ;  and  as  we  quench  the  spirit  who  waits  on 
every  conscience,  Ave  lose  the  power  of  recovery. 
No  arbitrary  act  of  God  hardens  the  heart ;  but  it 
is  left,  if  we  persist  in  sin,  to    its  own  hardening. 


AND   PHYSICAL   LAW.  85 

Read  liere  that  law  of  moral  physiology,  so  fear- 
fully portrayed  by  the  apostle,  deeper  and  worthier 
of  our  study  than  the  structure  of  these  bodies  ; 
that  personal  law  which  every  man  must  know  in 
the  growth  of  his  own  character,  which  vindicates 
for  ever  the  love  of  God,  and  leaves  us  alone  in 
the  consciousness  of  our  responsibility ;  that  law 
in  whose  light  we  trace,  step  by  step,  the  whole 
long  process  of  wrong,  as  the  naturalist  traces  the 
embryo  of  the  reptile  through  its  wondrous  changes. 
"  Lust  when  it  hath  conceived,  bringeth  forth  sin, 
and  sin,  when  it  is  finished  " — fearful  word,  that  re- 
veals the  meaning  of  a  future  life,  as  no  arbitrary 
allotment,  but  the  ripening  of  the  seed  sown  here 
and  now  within  ns  ! — "  when  it  is  finished,  bringeth 
forth  death." 

Such,  my  friends,  is  the  truth  I  have  endeavored 
to  make  clear  by  the  witness  both  of  conscience  and 
experience.  And  now,  with  this  full  light,  we  may 
turn,  in  conclusion,  to  those  mysteries  of  life  which 
darken  so  many  minds.  I  have  hitherto  postponed 
such  cases,  because  I  believe  that  all  error  on  this 
subject  comes  from  the  science  that  gropes  in  the 
penumbra  of  social  history  until  it  loses  its  moral 
eyesight.  It  is  from  what  is  called  an  induction  from 
two  classes  of  facts — those  of  constitutional  disease 
and  vicious  education — that  our  modern  fatalism  is 


86  MOIJAL   llESPONSIBILETY 

drawn.  We  must  look  fairly  at  all  such  facts,  nor  need 
we  soften  a  single  sliade  in  tlie  picture.     There  can 
be  no  question  that  with  each  generation  of  civilized 
life  there  have  grown  more  complex  forms  of  men- 
tal and  moral  malady  ;  and  that  our  riper  inquiry 
has  discovered  much  beyond  the  knowledge  of  the 
past.    Here,  then,  the  naturalist  finds  room  for  his 
plausible  theory.      According  to  the  view  of   one 
popular  school,  which  has   been  largely  accepted, 
the  mental  and  moral  powers  have  their  determina- 
tion in  the  structure  of  the  skull.     A  murderer  is 
born  with  the  organ  of  combativeness,  and  a  thief 
with  acquisitiveness  in  such  excess,  coupled  with  the 
small  development  of  reverence  or  social  affection, 
that  there  could  be  no  escape  from  crime.      It  has 
been  affirmed,  again,  by  eminent  physiologists,  that 
the  germs  of  every  vice   arc  to  be  found  in  some 
native  deranojement  of  the  functions  ;  and  the  lines 
severing  the  physical  from  the  moral  are  in  most 
cases  so  blurred  as  to  make  any  clear  distinction  im- 
possible.    All  crime  is  monomania,  and  all  are  in  a 
degree   monomaniacs.     One   kleptomaniac,  to  use 
the  scientific  name  which  lias  taken  the  place  of  the 
vulgar  word  thief,  filches  rings  or  old  shoes,  and 
another  the  gold  in  the  bank- vault.     One  poisons  a 
family,   and   another   butchers   his   own   children. 
We  have  the  conclusion  in  the  savins'  of  a  master 


AND    PHYSICAL    LAW.  87 

of  the  same  school,  that  Avlieu  our  legishition  lias 
become  true  science,  it  will  treat  all  criinimils  as 
iiinoeont  victims  of  physical  defect. 

"What,  then,  shall  wo  think  of  such  ojiinions  as 
these?     Thcj  have  been  advanced  on  the  authority 
of  men  of  professed  learnin^%  and  we  should  will- 
ingly   extract  whatever  kernel  of  truth  may  be  in 
them.     AVe  do  not  doubt  the  fact  and  the  variety 
of   such  disease.     VTc  rejoice  that  many  cases  of 
physical   infirmity,  once  treated  Avith  cruelty,  are 
now  submitted  to  the  milder  discipline  of  the  hos- 
j)ital.     Our  knowledge  of  sanitary  laws  has  improv- 
ed  our   criminal  jurisprudence ;    nor  do   I   doubt 
that  it  has  cpiickened   our   faith   in  the  principles 
of  Christian  reform    rather    than    the    religion   of 
the  jail   and  the  gibbet.      But  it  is  one  thing  to 
admit   all  such  cases  in  their  utmost   extent,  and 
(juite   another   to    infer   that   the    bulk    of    man- 
kind   is    irresponsible.      We   do   not   punish    the 
idiot  or  the  insane  ;  but  we  knoAv  that  the  social 
community   is    not   made    up  of   idiots    or  insane. 
"Wc  are  all  aware  of  the  influence  of  our  physical 
state  on  our  mental  and  moral  action;   we  know 
that  a  dyspepsia  may  give  us  gloomy  views  of  life, 
and  a  fit  of  the  gout  may  make  us  less  good-natured 
Christians  than  our  wont ;  nay,  -vve  may  even  find 
some  truth  in  the  theory  of  ;ui  '"'"^onio;!  •■  liiiiii(.i'i.st, 


00  MORAL   RESPONSIBILITY 

that  it  may  depend  on   the   biliary  duct  whether 
we  are  inclined  to  a  Calvinistic  theology  or  a  more 
genial  tone  of  religion.     But  none  of  ns  is  so  ab- 
T  snrd  as  to  deny,  Avhatever  our  morbid  humors,  that 
w^e  are,  in  all  essential  relations  of  life,  capable  of 
moral  knowledge  and  choice.     "What  strange  power 
this  habit  of  dealing  with  gases  and  earths  and  post- 
inortem  dissections  has  to  make  some  men  of  learning 
the  veriest  children  in  their  knowledge  of  the  first 
princij^les  of  human  character  or  moral  law !  ,  If  I 
should  pretend  to  give  an  essay  on  the  structure  of 
the  lungs,  and  should  say  nothing  of  its  normal  func- 
tion, but  note  all  possible  cases  of  tubercular  disease, 
and  then  conclude  that  this  w^as  the  nature  of  the 
lungs,  I  should  follow  the  exact  method  of  such  rea- 
soners.     To  rear  a  theory  of  physical  necessity  out 
of  such  exceptional  cases  is  to  stultify  all  know- 
ledge.    It  makes  no  difference  between  the  inherit- 
ed tendency  and   the   grow^th  of    evil   habits.     It 
offers  no  hope  for  struggle  against  natural  weak- 
ness.    It  educates  our  infirmities  into   full-grown 
vices.     It  destroys  the  Avhole  moral  basis  on  whicli 
society  rests.     Legislation  Avould  not  become  more 
scientific,  but  simply  incapable  of  any  decision,  and 
at  last  anarchy.     Admirable  world  !  where  each  mur- 
derer could  claim  his  inherited  passions  as  a  person- 
al privilege,  each  thief  urge  his  irresistible  lust ;  and 


AND    rilYSICAL   J.XW.  89 

the  great  robber  whom  Ave  have  lately  sent  to  prison 
could  plead  that  he  obeyed  the  oiiinipotent 
law  of  nature,  which  created  him  like  the  shark  to 
prey  on  the  lesser  fry  of  the  social  waters.  Xo  ;  we 
may  thank  God  there  remain  moral  sense  and  com- 
mon-sense enough  to  refute  sucli  sophistry.  There 
are  thousands  who  need  the  discipline  of  justice ; 
and  the  pretended  humanity  that  forgets  it  is  no 
mercy,  but  cruelty  to  the  larger  number,  who  are 
so  unhappy  as  to  have  conunitted  no  crime  to 
entitle  them  to  the  interest  of  our  men  of  science. 
Xor  woidd  such  science  only  palsy  justice,  but  it 
would  destroy  the  motive  power  of  all  benevolence. 
It  is  idle  to  talk  of  any  social  cure  if  we  deny  the 
fact  of  moral  responsibility.  He  who  has  no  capa- 
city to  know  right  from  wrong  can  never  learn  it ; 
and  if  there  be  no  evil  save  physical  infirmity, 
there  is  nothing  to  be  learned,  for  the  remedy  is 
as  hopeless  as  the  disease. 

But  I  j^ass  to  the  second  of  those  mysteries 
so  perplexing  to  many  minds — I  mean  that  of 
ignorance  or  vicious  education.  As  wc  see  the 
growing  curse  of  our  civilization,  the  hideous  sta- 
tistics of  the  great  city,  where  thousands  are  bred 
in  the  sunless  dens  of  vice,  and  seemingly  doomed 
to  moral  death,  it  is  a  proldem  that  at  times  might 
tempt  us  to  the  merciless  doctrine  of  Darwin,  as  if 


90  JIORAL    KESPONSIBILITY 

tlic  same  law  of  tlie  destruction  of  the  Aveak  juany 
for  the  survival  of  the  few  were  as  true  of  the 
human  race  as  of  beast  and  reptile.  But  we  thank 
God  there  is  in  the  evil  the  ground  of  a  nobler 
activity.  We  must  not  shut  our  eyes  to  the  Ijear- 
ing  of  such  facts  on  a  Christian  education.  Do 
we  accept  the  religion  that  would  condemn  these 
unhappy  thousands  hy  the  same  rule  we  apply  to 
more  favored  classes  ?  God  forbid  such  an  affront 
to  the  Gospel  of  Christ !  Nor  is  it  to  be  forgotten 
that  we  must  begin  with  the  cure  of  the  outward 
evils,  before  we  can  do  nmch  for  the  training  of 
the  moral  or  religious  character  ;  that  the  study  of 
the  laws  of  health,  the  better  adjustment  of  social 
labor,  the  opening  of  new  channels  of  iiulustry,  arc 
noble  features  of  our  reform  to-day.  P)Ut  surely 
we  can  admit  all  that  a  practical  wisdom  asks, 
without  concluding  that  the  vices  of  mankind  are 
wholly  the  residt  of  physical  law.  Yet  this  is  the 
doctrine  taught  by  a  large  class  of  our  wise  men, 
in  essays  on  reform,  and  theories  of  social  science. 
It  is  useless  to  indulge  in  any  speculative  fancies  of 
religious  or  moral  improvement.  The  only  aim  of 
jjhilanthropy  is  to  rear  this  selfish  animal  man  as 
we  rear  a  breed  of  Alderneys  or  a  better  variety 
of  fowls.  Indeed,  I  knovv^  no  book  more  disheart- 
ening to  every  lover  of  hmnan  good  than  one  often 


AND    rilYSICAL    LAW.  91 

quoted  as  an  oracle  of  tliis  modern  school  ;  I  mean 
Buckle's  History  of  Civilization.  The  principle  of 
l>liysical  necessity  is  his  key  to  all  social  growth. 
The  moral  character  of  2)eople  or  age  is  as  mere  a 
result  of  outward  laws  as  a  record  of  the  weather; 
and  if  we  know  the  race,  the  climate,  the  conditions 
uf  development,  we  may  reckon  the  exact  propor- 
tion of  thieves,  suicides,  ninrderers.  History,  in 
his  vioM',  has  been  altogether  falsely  written  on  the 
theory  of  human  freedom.  Its  ages,  its  great  men, 
its  progress  in  art,  letters,  social  polities,  all  are 
facts  of  nature,  as  the  question  of  the  crops  and  the 
best  ]node3  of  drainage.  And  what,  then,  does  this 
historic  arithmetic  prove?  It  proves  no  necessity 
at  all.  The  reckoning  of  moral  probabilities  is  not 
like  a  law  of  nature.  We  may  learn  much  from 
such  statistics  for  the  wise  method  of  our  philan- 
throj-jy ;  but  to  infer  hence  that  there  is  no  power 
of  moral  action,  is  a  inonstrous  folly.  What  is  a 
sociology  that  proposes  to  educate  a  being  without 
any  moral  capacity  ?  Where  shall  we  find  in  liis- 
tory,  if  it  be  only  this  product  of  outward  causes, 
the  highest  truth  that  explains  the  past,  or  gives 
hope  for  the  future  ?  Wonderful  philosophy  of 
progress !  It  opens  a  new  view  of  the  historic  cha- 
racters of  all  time.  A  Domitian  is  as  innocent  in 
the  amusement  of  killing  Christians  as  in  catching 


92  MORAL   RESPONSIBILITY 

flies.  A  Borgia  is  as  blameless  a  hero  of  his  time 
as  a  St.  Louis.  The  saints  and  the  sages  are  as  pure 
a  growth  of  nature  as  the  bread-fruit  or  the  orange. 
The  contests  of  civil  or  religious  liberty  are,  as  Mil- 
ton said  of  the  heptarchy,  "  the  battle  of  kites  and 
crows." 

Is  this  the  law  of  civilization  ?  A  grub  might  on 
the  same  theory  write  the  rise  and  fall  of  his  in- 
sect dynasties.  We  read  law  indeed  in  history ; 
we  know  the  social  inliuences  that  combine  in 
the  growth  of  its  great  ages ;  l)ut  it  is  the  moral 
power  of  man,  as  he  struggles  Avith  the  forces 
of  nature  and  human  life,  that  makes  its  grandeur. 
Even  in  the  domain  of  physical  science,  methinks 
a  scholar  should  read  the  contradiction  of  such  a 
theory.  When  I  recount  the  marvels  which  a 
gifted  countryman  of  our  own  in  his  book  on  Man 
and  IsTature  has  gathered  with  a  wealth  of  learn- 
ing as  rare  as  is  its  Christian  spirit ;  Avhen  I 
remember  how  the  weakest  of  creatures  in  bod- 
ily might  has  changed  our  rude  planet  dming  his 
few  thousand  years  as  wondrously  as  in  any  of 
the  prehistoric  ages ;  how,  through  his  toil,  there 
has  been  a  new  distribution  of  plant  and  animal ; 
how  climates  have  grown  soft  as  he  opened  the 
forests  to  the  sunshine ;  lands  have  heen  won  from 
the  waters ;  his  dikes  have  defied  the  seas  ;  rivers 


AND    niYSICAL    LAW.  03 

liavc  been  guided  into  fresh  channels  ;  torrid  zone 
and  polar  ice  have  yielded  their  secrets ;  I  know 
liiin  to  he  more  than  the  growth  and  slave  of  na- 
ture ;  I  know  the  power  his  Maker  gave  him 
to  subdue  the  earth.  Yet  this  is  hut  the  lowest 
side  of  his  capacity.  His  history  reveals  a  higher 
conquest  than  in  the  physical  M'orld.  In  that  Chris- 
tianity which  our  profound  sage  banishes  from  his 
view  of  civilization  as  rpiite  beneath  his  interest ; 
those  crowded  centm'ies  of  progress  from  the 
hordes  of  !N^orthern  Europe  to  the  world  of  to-day  ; 
that  faith  glowing  even  in  the  shade  of  supersti- 
tion ;  those  heroes  who  died  at  the  stake  for  what 
our  modern  wisdom  calls  a  faded  legend ;  the  colos- 
sal person  of  a  Luther,  a  Galileo,  who  led  on  the 
new  order — in  these  I  see  what  vindicates  the  moi;al 
rank  of  man,  and  at  the  same  time  shows  the  liv- 
ing guidance  of  God.  History  is  nothing  if  it  be 
not  the  biography  of  such  leaders  of  the  race. 
Take  out  of  civilization  this  personality,  and  it  is  a 
page  as  void  of  human  interest  as  the  story  of  the 
ichthyosaurus  and  mammoths.  You  may  call  it 
progress  ;  I  know  nothing  so  cheerless  and  hopeless 
as  such  materialism.  Xo ;  it  is  the  very  opposite 
that  a  Christian  science  teaches.  Its  triumphs  have 
been  the  fruit  of  faith  in  the  cpiickening  power  of 
goodness  upon  the  moral  nature.     It  is  because,  in 


9-i  MORAL   RESPONSIBILITY 

tlio  most  depraved  of  luiman  beings,  there  is  some 
fountain  of  conscience,  like  the  f resli  springs  under 
the  salt  sea,  some  striving  after  purity,  some  feel-, 
ing  of  obligation,  that  vre  have   hope   in  the   re- 
demption of  the  man  or  of  the  race. 

I  trust,  Christian  friends,  that  this  law  of  re- 
sponsibility has  been  made  clear  to  your  reason  and 
conscience.  I  have  sought  fairly  to  accept  every 
lisrht  which  a  wise  science  can  cast  on  the  evils  of 
human  life ;  but  I  have  not  disguised  my  view  of  a 
theory  as  false  to  science  as  it  is  to  the  spirit  of 
Christianity.  Is  this  the  boasted  result  of  modern 
knowledge;  this  philosophy  that  can  affront  the 
most  sacred  convictions  of  the  soul,  and  dissect 
the  moral  nature  with  as  little  heed  of  the  hu- 
man beings  around  us  as  of  the  writhings  of  a 
frog  under  a  galvanic  battery  ?  ]N"o !  let  such  no- 
tions become,  as  they  may  be  in  an  age  of  curious 
opinion,  the  creed  of  many  half-thinking  minds  ; 
let  the  belief  in  the  reality  of  moral  law  be  shaken, 
and  not  only  our  hold  of  Christianity,  but  the  life 
of  social  virtue  will  be  palsied  at  the  heart.  We 
can  not  overrate  the  importance  of  this  one  truth. 
Our  faith  in  the  being  of  God,  in  the  personal  Pro- 
vidence that  guides  the  world,  and  in  a  future  exist- 
ence, is  bound  up  with  it.  I  thank  God,  indeed, 
that  we  need  have  no  lasting  fear  of  the  triumph 


AXD   PHYSICAL   LAW.  95 

of  such  error.  Science  itself  will  refute  the  crude 
theories  tliat  abuse  its  name.  I  look  forward  witli 
a  hearty  faith  to  the  day  when  its  discoveries  shall 
lead  the  mind  of  our  time  to  a  surer  knowledge  of 
that  gospel  which  slieds  the  only  perfect  light  on 
tlie  darkness  of  human  history  and  the  mystery  of 
evil ;  and  if  the  shifting  clouds  of  modern  opinion 
leave  us  sometimes  in  shadow,  I  keep  my  eyes  fixed 
on  the  eternal  sun. 

And  thus,  in  closing,  I  would  urge  on  you,  my 
friends,  for  your  own  personal  belief  and  action,  to 
prize  the  sacred  iidieritance  which  God  has  given 
you  in  this  moral  truth.  Let  no  subtleties  of  a 
Christian  or  an  unchristian  speculation  obscure  it. 
AYliatever  the  mvsteries  of  life,  whatever  the  strus- 
gles  of  our  own  personal  experience,  hold  fast  the 
belief  that  there  is  a  Providence,  that  duty  and  ho- 
liness are  realities,  that  we  are  not  the  slaves  of 
destiny,  l)ut  the  children  of  God.  Study  that  fact 
of  your  spiritual  being  in  the  history  of  mankind. 
Read  there  the  commentary  witnessed  in  every  evil 
life,  from  the  monarchs  of  crime,  who  have  said, 
"  Evil,  be  thou  my  good,"  to  the  thousands  of  lesser 
wrong-doers;  the  profligate  who  has  passed  from 
lust  to  utter  nncleanness ;  the  dishonest  who  has 
nursed  his  greed  to  open  fraud ;  the  murderer  who 
Ijas  plunged  from  michecked  passion  into  the  abyss 


96  MORAL   RESPONSIBILITY 

of  death.  Study  it  in  the  biography  of  all  the 
good  who  have  wrestled  with  the  infirmities  of  na- 
ture, and  by  the  grace  of  God  have  won  the  bat- 
tle ;  the  scholars,  the  saints,  the  heroes,  who  have 
left  us  their  lives,  next  to  that  of  the  perfect  Mas- 
ter, to  teach  us  the  victory  of  faith.  Study  it  in 
your  own  consciences  ;  for  this  knowledge  concerns 
us  above  all  others.  "We  know  that  there  rests  on 
each  of  us  this  law  of  our  responsibility  ;  and  while 
we  can  not  choose  our  lot,  we  can  choose  to  make  it 
the  condition  of  triumj^h  or  of  defeat.  "We  rejoice 
in  such  a  gift,  but  we  rejoice  with  fear.  "We  rejoice 
that  we  are  made  in  the  image  of  God ;  we  fear 
that  W' e  may  be  the  bond-slaves  of  an  evil  w^ill : 
we  rejoice  that  we  have  the  renewing  grace  of  the 
Holy  Spirit;  we  fear  that  we  may  quench  it  by  our 
own  neglect :  we  rejoice  that  we  may  win  the  life 
eternal ;  we  fear  while  we  hold  in  our  slight  grasp 
the  issue  of  life  or  death.  That  truth  speaks  to 
every  honest  mind.  It  speaks  for  our  warning  and 
for  our  comfort  in  the  mingled  record  of  our  past 
years ;  the  struggles  of  passion  with  duty,  the  sins, 
the  trials,  yet  the  rewards  for  which  we  can  thank 
the  Author  and  Giver  of  grace.  Yes,  blessed  be 
God  !  this  is  the  witness  of  a  Christian  conscience  to 
the  truth  cJf  His  Gospel ;  and  as  we  close  the  book 
of  our  own  hearts  and  of  history,  it  is  with  no  philo- 


AND   PHYSICAL   LAW  97 

Eopliy  of  despair,  but  with  a  deeper  reverence  for 
those  laws  which  He  has  implanted  in  our  nature, 
and  an  unshaken  faith  in  the  divine  Love  that 
speaks  to-day  over  the  body  of  our  humanity,  "  It 
is  not  dead,  but  sleepeth." 


THE  RELATIO]^  OF  MIRACLES 

TO    THE 

CHRISTIAN   FAITH. 


REV.   J.   H.   RYLANCE,   D.D. 

BKCTOK    OF    6T.    MARK'S    CUUKCH,    NEW-YORK. 


THE  RELATION  OF  MIRACLES  TO  THE  CHRISTIAN 
FAITH. 


"  If  I  do  not  the  works  of  my  Father,  believe  me  not.  But 
if  I  do,  though  ye  believe  not  me,  believe  the  works." — John 
10 :  37,  38. 

No  unfair  reflection  "was  meant  to  Lc  implied,  I 
take  it,  in  the  antithesis  between  '"  Christian  Truth 
and  modern  Ojnniayi^^  ■svhich  Ave  find  in  the  gene- 
ral title  of  this  current  course  of  religious  lectures. 
We  are  to  sec  in  such  superscription  no  more  than 
a  simple,  candid  recognition  of  the  fact,  that  be- 
tween what  is  commonly  regarded  as  "  Christian 
Truth,"  on  the  one  hand,  and  certain  "Opinions," 
theories,  or  hypotheses,  on  the  other,  there  exist 
yarious  occasions  of  dissension  and  controversy,  to- 
ward an  adjustment  of  which  these  apologetic  dis- 
courses are  meant  to  he  an  honest  and  a  substantial 
contribution. 

How  far  they  will  serve  to  this  end  will  depend, 
in  the  main,  perhaj^s,  upon  the  intellectual  and 
scholarly  competency  of  those  appointed  to  discuss 
the  several  subjects.     But  something  Avill  depend. 


102  THE   RELATION   OF   MIRACLES 

also,  upon  the  temper  or  spirit  in  which  such  dis- 
cussions are  conducted  and  accepted.  "We  are  sup- 
jjosed  to  enter  the  arena  of  debate  free  from  every 
feeling  ^prejudicial  to  Truth  ;  with  no  disposition  to 
dogmatize  or  dictate  ;  nor  to  accept  dogmatism,  on 
the  one  side  or  on  the  other.  The  largest  latitude 
must  he  allowed  to  investigation,  and  the  severest 
exercise  to  the  critical  faculty  must  be  freely  con- 
ceded to  all,  or  we  had  better  retire  from  the  strife, 
and  betake  ourselves  for  safety  to  recognized  and 
accepted  authorities. 

The  want  of  such  an  open-minded  and  impartial 
tolerance  is  an  imputation  very  commonly  alleged 
against  the  Christian  apologist,  and  the  reproach 
must  be  acknowledged  as  sometimes  well-deserved. 
But  the  charge  may  be  fairly  retorted,  alas !  upon 
some  who  seem  to  assume  that  the  judicial  temper 
is  never  disturbed  in  men  of  science,  nor  the  line  of 
a  rigorous  logic  ever  forcibly  bent  to  sustain  a  fa- 
vorite hypothesis.  Such  a  suspicion  seldom  fairly 
lies,  perhaps,  against  acknowledged  leaders*  of  sci- 
entific thought ;  but  in  the  ranks  of  their  followers, 
there  are  many,  it  may  be  feared,  who  strain  the 
doctrines  of  their  masters,  or  make  inferential  ap- 
plications of  them,  which  betray  what  we  may 
mildly  term  an  unscientific  animus.  Men  of  this 
order  constitute  in  our  day  a  sort  of  lay-priesthood. 


TO   THP:    CIIllISTIAN    FAITH.  103 

as  narrow,  and  intolerant,  and  tyrannous  in  temper 
as  the  priesthood  of  the  Churcli  ever  Avas  in  the 
days  of  its  darkest  supremacy.  And  this  temper 
we  encounter  in  its  most  arrogant  mood  specially 
in  the  field  assigned  me  for  discussion  this  evening. 
Inspired  and  fortified  by  tlie  predominant  tenden- 
cies and  teachings  of  modern  Materialism,  scientific 
skepticism  has  waxed  bold  and  defiant  of  late,  and 
the  spirit  of  this  type  of  infidelity  to-day  is  not  so 
much  one  of  doubt,  as  of  scorn,  of  all  supernatural 
claims  and  pretensions.  The  leading  adversaries  of 
historical  Christianity,  in  this  school,  disdainfully 
refuse  to  consider  any  evidence  whatever  submitted 
in  favor  of  any  special  intervention  u])oii  the  estalj- 
lislied  order  of  Nature,  but  start  with  the  assump- 
tion as  a  postulate,  that  a  miracle  is  impossible. 

The  extravagance  of  such  a  position  must  be  ob- 
vious, however,  to  every  candid  thinker.  Such  a 
sweeping  negative  is  incapable  of  being  proved,  ex- 
cept by  an  exhaustive  induction,  not  only  of  all  the 
facts  of  Nature  as  we  know  it  now,  but  of  all  its 
past  transitions  and  stages  of  development,  and  of 
all  the  possibilities  which  the  future  may  have  in  re- 
serve. The  ])ossibilitii  of  miracles,  indeed,  cannot 
be  consistently  denied,  except  on  the  ground  of 
sheer  Atheism.  But  the  existence  of  a  supernatu- 
ral Being  is  necessarily  assumed  in  the  very  terms 


104  THE    RELATION   OF   MIRACLES 

of  the  controversy  between  Faitli  and  Unbelief.  If 
sueli  a  preliminary  claim  be  denied,  cadit  qucestio  : 
there  is  an  end,  of  course,  to  all  argument  upon  the 
matter.  The  system  of  Nature  can  not  arrest  or  in 
any  way  interfere  with  its  own  order  and  functions. 
In  other  words,  Nature  can  not  be  ,swj96?'-natural.* 

The  abstract  possibility  of  miracles  must  there- 
fore be  conceded  before  advance  can  be  made  in 
any  direction  in  the  conduct  of  the  discussion.  The 
question  of  the  moral  or  contingent  possibility  of 
such  phenomena  remains,  and  such  possibility  may 
be  legitimately  denied.  But  the  denial  cannot  be 
allowed  to  rest  upon  a  merely  partial  induction  of 
facts,  or  upon  evidence  derived  only  from  one 
sphere  of  thought  or  research.  For  the  problem  is 
mixed,  and  its  solution  can  not  be  left  to  any  one 
professional  school.  Let  the  Materialist,  or  the  Po- 
sitivist,  or  the  representatives  of  any  of  our  various 
types  of  naturalistic  science,  submit  their  facts  and 
arguments  in  disproof  of  the  claim  that  Almighty 
God  has  ever  intervened,  or  that  lie  does  intervene, 
or  that  He  ever  will  intervene,  in  a  supernatural 
way,  with  the  order  or  functions  of  Nature,  and  the 
evidence  must  be  received  with  the  respect  due  to 


*  "  The  possibility  of  a  miracle  is  iavolved  in  the  recogai- 
tion  of  a  Divine  will."— Prof.  Plcmptre. 


TO   THE    CHRISTIAN   FAITH.  105 

its  intrinsic  force.  But  Moral  and  Spiritual  Pliilo- 
sophyand  Historical  Criticism  will  claim  to  be  heard 
at  the  same  bar,  not  merely  in  mitigation  of  the 
evidence  supplied  by  Physical  Science,  but  in  rever- 
sal of  some  of  its  characteristic  conclusions.  For 
tliough  Physical  Science  may  be  competent  to  affirm 
what  is,  within  the  limits  of  its  own  observation 
and  experiment,  it  is  not  competent,  ^wort^  Science, 
to  say  what  has  or  has  7iot  been  in  the  past,  or  what 
mai/  or  may  7wt  be  in  the  future,  except  as  a  pre- 
sumption from  tlic  present  order  of  tilings  ;  or  to 
say  what  the  cause  or  causes  are,  or  are  not,  to  which 
Science  is  compelled,  in  the  last  analysis,  to  assign 
all  the  varied  phenomena  which  crowd  the  field  tif 
its  investigation. 

The  student  of  a  merely  phenomenal  science  Ije- 
comcs  intrusive  and  impertinent,  therefore,  when 
he  presumes  to  prescribe  limits  to  the  possibilities 
of  the  mysterious  Energy  which  works  beneath  and 
through  phenomena,  or  to  the  Intelligence  which 
seems  to  direct  its  operations  and  issues  ;  but  he  be- 
comes positively  offensive  and  ludicrously  illogical 
when  he  propounds  his  universal  negative  as  a  bar 
to  all  farther  investigation  or  debate,  which  nega- 
tive he  can  only  sustain,  if  he  condescend  to  defend 
his  position  at  all,  by  u  very  limited  induction  of  so- 
called  facts,  many  of  which  may  be  still  open  to  re- 


106  THE    RELATION   OF   MIRACLES 

view,  wliile  some  may  be  doomed  to  final  rejection. 
Let  him  say  that  lie  finds  no  trace  of  miraculous  in- 
trusion upon  the  order  and  sequences  of  Nature 
within  the  widest  scope  of  his  inspection  or  experi- 
ment, and  we  assent.  No  one  claims  any  such  dis- 
covery. But  let  him  confess,  too,  if  lie  would  be 
consistent  with  the  wise  reserve  of  the  best  minds 
of  his  own  school,  and  with  the  essential  limits  of 
its  special  sphere,  that  a  merely  phenomenal  science 
can  never  be  made  to  yield  a  particle  of  evidence 
against  iha  jyossihility  of  miracles. 

I  shall  hold  myself  justified,  therefore,  in  assum- 
ing a  Tlieistic  basis  for  the  argument  I  am  liere  to 
submit,  while  I  may  be  allowed  to  premise,  also, 
that  the  range  of  the  discussion  will  be  confined  to 
the  miracles  ascribed  to  Christ  and  His  apostles, 
deeming  it  enough  to  authenticate  the  principle, 
without  attempting  to  define  the  extent  of  its  ap- 
plication. The  substantial  truth  of  the  Gospel  his- 
tories will  be  assumed,  for  it  is  not  worth  while  to 
discuss  the  meaning  or  the  value  of  the  words  or 
works  of  One  the  reality  of  whose  life  and  character 
is  denied  ;  not  meaning  to  cover  by  such  assump- 
tion, of  cQurse,  the  question  in  debate,  but  availing 
myself  of  such  materials  only  as  the  most  destruc- 
tive school  of  criticism  concedes. 

In    venturing   to   advance,    tlierefore,  let    it   be 


TO   THE    CHRISTIAN    FAITH.  107 

frankly  admitted  that  tliere  arc  antecedent,  instinc- 
tive, necessary  presumptions  aii^ainst  the  credibility 
of  any  event  reputed  to  be  miraculous  ;  Avhich  pre- 
sumptions arc  inspired  by  the  nniformity  of  Na- 
ture, and  conlirmed  by  the  practical  trust  -vve  arc 
compelled  to  repose  in  her  invariable  and  stead- 
fast order,  and  by  the  beneiicent  results  of  obedi- 
ence to  her  equal,  inflexible  laws.  And  this  instinc- 
tive feeling  or  faith  has  been  immensely  fortified 
l)y  the  progress  of  scientiiic  discovery,  very  notably 
\yitliin  recent  years.  From  the  time  of  Thales, 
such  progress  has  largely  consisted  in  "  the  elimi- 
nation of  supposed  Divine  interferences,  and  in  the 
disclosure  of  an  established  order.  One  department 
of  Xaturc  after  another  has  been  brought  within 
the  circle  of  ascertained  law.  Plienomena,  seem- 
ingly capricious,  luTvc  been  found  to  recur  with  ar 
regularity  not  less  unvarying  than  the  succession  of 
day  and  night."*  A  comet  was  once  looked  upon 
as  a  sort  of  firebrand,  wdiich  the  Almighty  had 
thrown  into  space  to  startle  and  to  terrify  the  occu- 
pants of  our  globe,  and  its  career  was  watched  in 
amazement  and  fear,  lest  haply  it  might  strike  this 
unruly  orb,  and  light  it  up  as  a  great  funeral-pyre, 
a  spectacle  and  a  warning  to  the  outlying  sisterhood 

*  Prof.  Fisher. 


108  THE   RELATION    OF   MIRACLES 

of  worlds.  But  to-day,  we  track  its  brilliant  mardi 
through  the  heavens  with  as  much  composure  as  we 
trace  the  silvery  pathway  of  the  quiet  moon.  Pes- 
tilence was  once  the  arbitrary  infliction  of  Divine 
vengeance  upon  the  sins  and  depravities  of  peoples. 
Now,  we  have  theoretically  and  practically  come  to 
account  for  it  as  a  consequence  of  the  breach  of  san- 
itary laws.  The  earthquake  was  once  esteemed  no- 
thing less  than  the  immediate  voice  of  God,  and  it 
was  the  direct  hand  of  Omnipotence  which  tore  the 
hills  from  their  foundations,  and  rent  the  bars  of 
the  solid  eartli,  burying  cities  and  populations  in  a 
common  grave.  Now,  it  is  merely  the  unequally 
distril^uted  forces  of  Xature  flnding  an  outlet  for 
themselves  in  this  somewhat  rude  and  disorderly 
way.  Thus  scientific  research  and  achievement 
have  combined  with  the  popular  instinct  to  create 
not  merely  an  antipathy,  but  what  passes  among 
some  for  a  well-grounded  conviction,  against  all  ar- 
guments in  favor  of  the  super-natural.  Yet  the 
feeling  is  nothing  better  than  an  imposing  preju- 
dice, while,  logically  regarded,  the  conclusion  has 
been  reached  by  a  sort  of  Icaji  in  the  dark  ;  for 
though  the  induction  has  been  carried  far  beyond 
the  limit  to  which  our  forefathers  had  applied  tlie 
process,  it  is  confessedly  very  far  from  complete 
still,  viewed   in   regard  to  either   Space  or  Time. 


TO   THE   CHRISTIAN    FAITH.  109 

And  since  Science  is  forward  to  tell  us  that  she 
knows  nothing  of  causes  or  of  final  ends,  that  she 
simply  seeks  to  know  what  is,  and  not  the  whence, 
or  w/ii/,  or  whither  of  things,  there  may  be,  be- 
yond the  penetration  of  her  finest  instruments,  or 
the  detection  of  her  subtlest  analysis,  or  the  discov- 
ery of  her  Ijoldest  explorations,  a  supernatural  In- 
telligence and  Power,  evidence  of  whose  s})eeial 
operation  may  be  possibly  found  in  other  spheres, 
which  Physical  Science  has  failed  to  find  in  her 
own.  It  is  at  least  premature,  therefore,  if  not  im- 
pertinent, to  tell  us  that  the  evidence  is  all  in,  and 
the  verdict  recorded,  while  the  evidence  is  avowedly 
defective,  and  the  verdict  ex  imrte. 

The  fashionable  but  pitifully  inadequate  concej)- 
tion  of  Nature,  in  the  world  of  modern  Material- 
ism, is  that  Nature  is  a  purely  physical  organism, 
whose  causes  are  i)i  and  whose  effects  are  wholly 
from  itself  ;  a  huge  automatic  machine,  Avhich  has 
in  it,  either  by  original  endowment  or  from  an  in- 
herent necessity,  the  powers  of  self-movement, 
self-renewal,  self -propagation.  The  great  Artificer, 
when  lie  built  it  (if,  in  mere  courtesy,  Science  Avill 
still  allow  that  Kature  ever  had  a  Maker  at  all),  left 
it  to  run  on  without  intervention  or  inspection  from 
Ilim  ;  left  it  to  grind  out  results  in  a  blind,  releiit- 
less  way,  which   it  were  wise   if   men   would   look 


110  THE    DELATION    OF    ]\[IKACLES 

upon  as  stern  necessities  merely,  and  enjoy  tliem  or 
endure  tlieni  in  tliankless,  dumb  submission.  Xa- 
ture  lias  thus  been  deified  l)y  tlie  disciples  of  our 
latest  infidelity  ;  lier  laws  are  adequate  to  account 
for  all  phenomena,  to  satisfy  all  necessities.  A  Di- 
vine Providence  was  the  amiable  conceit  of  our  in- 
tellectual infancy.  Men  arc  wiser  now.  Nature  is 
the  all  and  in  all.  She  has  the  springs  of  a  pei'pe- 
tnal  movement  and  progress  in  herself.  Xo  intelli- 
gence guides  her  course  ;  no  almighty  hand  con- 
trols her  functions.  She  is  a  scheme  of  rigid  and 
relentless  necessity  ;  the  incarnation  of  fate  ;  an  end- 
less round  of  cause  and  effect ;  a  huge  mill,  in  which 
]nan  is  doomed  to  tread  the  ever-circling  wheel  till 
he  drop  into  the  oblivion  beneath.  But  cries  or  en- 
treaties can  not  help  him  ;  so,  like  the  wiser  brute, 
let  him  step  j^atiently  to  time,  or  the  great  wheel 
may  grind  him  to  powder. 

This  is  the  Gospel  of  modern  Materialism,  and 
the  deus  e.e  machina  Avhich  Avorlcs  all  the  mighty 
wonders  which  we  group  imder  this  souicM'hat 
vague  term  Xaturc,  's  Law,  to  the  loose  or  merely 
rhetorical  use  of  which  word  we  may  trace  many  of 
the  impotent  conclusions  Avhich  some  of  our  best 
minds  seem  to  have  reached  in  their  attempts  to 
discredit  the  accepted  faith  of  Christendom.  Com- 
mon peojile  are  filled  with  :i  muto  reverence  as  they 


TO    THE    CHRISTIAN   FAITH.  Ill 

sit  at  tlic  feet  of  our  scientilic  authorities,  wlio  talk 
so  imposingly  of  tlic  onuiipotencc  and  immutability 
of  law  ;  which  law,  tliey  tell  us,  is  adequate  to  ac- 
count for  all  the  phenomena  of  the  universe,  with 
no  indebtedness  to  a  Supreme  Power.  We  are  im- 
posed upon  by  words,  maxims,  formula; ;  for,  strict- 
ly sj)eakin<^,  a  law  is  nothing  but  a  generalization  of 
the  mind,  an  intellectual  abstraction,  and  has  no 
concrete  or  potential  existence  at  all.  The  mind 
perceives,  through  observation  or  by  experiment, 
that  phenomena  come  into  being  or  transpire  uni- 
formly mider  certain  conditions,  and  then  we  are 
said  to  have  discovered  the  law  of  their  being  or 
operation  ;  but  in  truth,  we  have  simply  discovered 
and  formulated  the  conditions  or  coincidences  of 
their  l)eing  and  action.  "  A  scientific  law  is  not  an 
ordinance,  but  a  record."  There  is  something;  be- 
neath  or  l^ehind  the  phenomena  which  produced 
them,  but  what  that  somethiiig  is  we  must  learn 
clseAvhere  than  in  llic  school  of  Phj'sical  Science. 
"  The  mere  ticketing  and  orderly  assortment  of  ex- 
ternal facts,"  observes  tlie  Duke  of  Argyll,  "  is  con- 
tinually spoken  of  as  if  it  were  in  the  nature  of  ex- 
planation, and  as  if  no  higher  truth  in  respect  to 
natural  phenomena  were  to  be  attained  or  desired  ;" 
and  we  are  left  to  infer  that  there  is  no  call  foraiiy 
power  al)u\c  or  l)eyond  laAV,  either  to  originate  or 


112  THE    RELATION    OF    MIKACLES 

direct  its  movements.     This  would  seem  to  be  the 
faith   of  the   fashionable  philosophj    iu    our    day, 
which  is  seldom   formally  and  fully  affirmed,  liow- 
'  ever,  but  which  is  rather  implied  or  insinuated  in  a 
vague,  grandiloquent  style  of  talk.     But  by  the  in- 
jection of  a  logical  solvent,  we  may  detect  the  most 
extravagant  absurdities  in   such  wide-sweeping  as- 
sumptions.    "  The  universe  is  ordered  and  ruled  by 
law  " — that  is  the  favorite  formula.     But  it  covers 
an  enormous  fallacy.     Ordered  and  ruled  by  law  ! 
Why,  then,  order  is  the  Orderer !    the  rule  is  the 
Ttuler  !  wliicli  claim  involves  an  absurdity,  since  or- 
der is  a  resultant  of  some  anterior  cause  or  causes ; 
and  we  are  thus  detected  in  confounding  sequences 
witli   antecedents,  and   are  fairly  chargeable  with 
talking  nonsense. 

"  No,"  it  might  be  said,  "  not  law  as  a  mere  gener- 
alization, as  an  observed  uniformity  of  processes  or 
results  only  ;  that  is  not  Avhat  is  meant.  But  law  as 
the  expression  oi  force,  Avliich  operates  and  reveals 
itself  through  fixed  laws."  Yes,  force !  It  is 
manifest  that  we  have  needed  that  conception  all 
along  to  complete  our  conception  of  Nature.  Co- 
existences, resemblances,  and  successions  are  not 
enough.  Laws  are  more  than  "  an  observed  order  of 
facts."  They  are  the  grooves,  so  to  speak,  through 
which  some  sort  of  insj}iration,  injlue?ic€,  j)owcr. 


TO   THE   CHKISTIAN   FAITH.  113 

flows,  llnding  expression  fur  itself  in  manifold  and 
ever-varying  phenomena.  Force  is  thus  admitted 
by  all  to  1)0  an  indispensable  postulate  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  Nature,  of  ■which  a  large,  free  use  is 
made  in  current  speculation,  especially  in  the  vari- 
ous schools  of  materialistic  philosophy,  in  which  the 
conception  is  made  to  fill  the  A'acancy  created  by 
the  denial  of  a  personal  God.  Force  is  thus  the 
latest  name  given  to  the  "  unknown  god  "  of  Sci- 
ence ;  a  convenient  designation  of  that  animat- 
ing, energizing,  wonder-working  Power  which  ever 
escapes  detection  ;  that  subtle,  mysterious  Some- 
thing which  penetrates  and  vitalizes  e\cry  atom 
in  the  universe  ;  which 

"  Warms  iu  tlie  suu,  refreslies  in  the  breeze, 
(•lows  iu  tlie  stars,  and  blossoms  in  the  trees  ;" 

but  of  Avhich  Ave  learn  no  more  as  to  its  origin  or 
essence  when  we  trace  it  to  "  protoplasm "  with 
Mr.  Huxley,  or  call  it  "  animal  spirits  "  with  Des 
Cartes.  We  cover  the  mystery  with  a  name,  and 
fondly  assume  we  have  explained  it  ;  but  we  are  no 
nearer  to  a  solution  of  the  great  problem  tlian  be- 
fore. 

But  we  have  made  an  immense  advance  toward 
a  sounder  philosophy  of  Nature,  and  toward  a 
worthier    conception    of     something    beyond    and 


114  THE   KELATION    OF   MIRACLES 

above  Nature,  since  we  liavc  had  done  Avith  bar- 
ren talk  about  some  sort  of  self-executive  me- 
elianism  as  the  best  account  to  be  given  of  the 
present  econonij  of  things  ;  more  especially  since 
we  have  learned  to  speak,  not  of  forces,  but  of 
Force.  "  The  tendency  of  Natural  Science,  in  its 
earlier  stages,  is  to  establish  a  plurality  of  forces. 
Nature  is  conceived  to  have  in  stock  as  inany  pow- 
ers as  she  has  kinds  of  ])roduct  to  display,"  But 
since  it  has  been  shown  that  "  all  the  forces  com- 
prised mider  the  term  '  physical '  are  so  '  corre- 
lated '  as  to  be  no  sooner  exj^ended  in  one  form 
than  they  reappear  in  another — in  fact,  to  be  con- 
^■ertible  inter  se — a  dynamic  identity,  masked  by 
transmigration,"  lias  been  established  ;  which  doc- 
trine has  been  carried  up  and  applied  to  Yital  and 
Mental  forces — tlie  conclusion,  now  universally  ac- 
cepted, being,  that  "  the  plurality  of  forces  is  an  il- 
lusion ;  tliat,  in  reality,  and  behind  the  variegated 
veil  of  phenomena,  tliere  is  but  one  force,  the  soli- 
tary fountain  of  the  Avhole  infinitude  of  change."* 

Strangely  enough,  then,  through  avenues  that  we 
never  expected  to  conduct  us  thither,  we  have  come 
upon  an  underlying  central  Unity,  of  which  all  out- 
ward forms  and  functions  are  but  the  necessary  in- 

*  Hev.  James  Martiueau. 


TO   THE    CUIUSTIAN   FAITH.  115 

struuicuts  or  results.  The  multitude  of  yods  with 
which  the  older  sciences  had  peopled  space  have  all 
vanished,  and  in  their  stead  Ave  have  one  grand, 
awful,  onniipresent  Power!  It  is  surely  to  be  count- 
ed a  solid  gain  to  those  who  have  all  along  held 
that  Nature,  manifold  and  devious  in  form  and 
movement,  is  nevertheless  a  witness  to  the  unity  of 
something  deeper  than  Xature,  and  which  they,  in 
their  innocence  or  fanaticism,  have  been  content  to 
call  (ron. 

But  wc  liavc  come  upon  something  more  wonder- 
ful still,  even  upon  that  which  Philosopliy  claims, 
with  the  assent  of  Science,  to  call  Spiritxiality  ;  not 
in  its  full  theological  sense,  perhaps,  but  as  an  ad- 
missible designation  of  an  attribute  which  we  are 
compelled  to  regard  as  hyperphysical  or  immateri- 
al. "  If,"  says  the  writer  just  quoted,  '*  we  are  to 
reduce  the  numerical  variety  of  forces  to  one,  which 
member  of  the  series  is  to  remain  as  the  type  of  all? 
Shall  we  more  rightly  presume  that  the  lowest  term, 
the  mechanical,  passes  upward  and  reappears  in  the 
form  of  mind?  or  that  the  highest  descends,  divest- 
ing itself  of  ju'crogative  cpialities  at  each  step,  and 
appearing  at  last  with  (piantitative  identity  alone  ? 
For  answer  to  these  (piestions,  we  nnist  turn  from 
the  physical  to  the  metaphysical  scrutiny  of  the 
main  conception Cast  your  eye,  then,  along 


IIG  THE    RELATIOX   OF   MIllACLES 

tlie  series  enumerated  by  Grove  and  Carpenter,  and 
ask  yourself  in  which  of  these  forms  the  djTiamic 
idea  originally  necessitates  itself.  Is  it  that  you 
have  to  supply  it  on  seeing  an  external  body  change 
its  place?  or  on  Avitnessing  some  chemical  phenom- 
enon, as  an  acid  stain  of  red  on  a  blue  cloth  ?  or  on 
noticing  the  needle  quiver  to  the  North  ?  It  will  be 
admitted  that,  if  we  ourselves  were  purely  j)assive, 
all  these  changes  might  cross  oiu*  visual  field  with 
only  the  eifect  of  a  time-succession — first  one  move- 
ment and  then  another ;  Avhile,  conversely,  if,  with- 
out any  of  these  phenomena  exhibiting  themselves 
before  us,  wo  ourselves  were  in  tlie  active  exercise 
of  Volition  more  or  less  difficult,  the  idea  of  Force 
would  be  provided  for.  It  follows  that  Will  is  the 
true  type  of  the  conception."  "  The  sense  of  ef- 
fort," Dr.  Carpenter  affirms,  is  the  ground  of  all 
our  "  causal  thought,"  "  the  form  of  Force  which 
may  be  taken  as  the  type  of  all  the  rest,"  declaring 
that  our  consciousness  of  Force  is  really  as  direct  as 
is  that  of  our  own  mental  states ;  and  concluding 
that  "  Force  must  be  regarded  as  tlie  direct  expres- 
sion or  manifestation  of  that  mental  state  which  we 
call  Will."* 

Do  Ave  realize  the  grandeur  and  scoj^e  of  this  doc- 

■"  "  Mutual  Relations  of  the  Vital  and  Physical  Forces." 


TO  THE   CHRISTIAN   FAITH.  117 

trine?  a  doctrine  Avliich  finds  its  ultimate  anthority 
in  consciousness  and  its  sanction  in  the  council- 
chamber  of  Science — know  we  what  it  means  ?  It 
means,  in  the  language  of  an  acknowledged  author- 
ity in  the  world  of  experimental  philosophy,* 
"  that  the  laws  of  Nature  are  but  the  modes  of  ope- 
ration of  the  Divine  Intelligence,  that  the  forces  of 
Nature  arc  but  the  omnipresent  energizing  Divine 
"Will,  that  even  the  objects  of  Nature  arc  but  the 
embodiments  of  Divine  thoughts."  It  means  that 
all  the  forms  and  functions  of  Nature  are  the  ex- 
pressions, mediate  or  immediate,  of  an  immanent 
Mind,  of  an  omniscient  and  omnipotent  God,  "  from 
whom,  and  by  whom,  and  to  whom  are  all  things, 
to  whom  be  glory  and  dominion  for  ever !" 

In  the  conduct  of  the  discussion  thus  far,  I  have 
been  chietly  aiming  to  secure  a  fulcrum  on  which  to 
rest  the  lever  of  a  positive  argument.  Is  it  too 
much  to  claim  that  the  task  is  accomplished  ?  Na- 
ture is  not  a  Totality  nor  a  Finality  ;  but  a  passive 
and  an  obedient  instrument  in  the  hands  of  Intelli- 
gence and  Power,  which  direct  the  complex  Organ- 
ism toward  the  attainment  of  other  and  higher  ends 
than  its  own  being  and  necessities.  A  new  class  of 
terms,  therefore,   have  successfully   asserted  their 


*  Prof.  Le  Conte. 


118  THE   RELATION   OF   MIRACLES 

claim  to  admission  into  the  vocabulary  of  Science — 
Intelligence,  Will,  Purpose — which  can  never  again 
be  remitted  to  the  region  of  pure  abstractions,  or  be 
counted  as  among  the  mere  "fictions  of  metaphy- 
sics." They  are  recognized  positive  factors  or  postu- 
lates in  the  latest  conception  or  scheme  of  the  uni- 
verse, which  Physical  Science  has  effectively  contri- 
buted to  construct.  As  we  track  our  way  along  the 
ever-ascending  line  in  pursuit  of  "the great  secret," 
the  process  here  culminates  in  man  ;  and  in  the  liber- 
ty, intelligence,  and  will  of  man,  we  have  the  essen- 
tial lineaments  of  an  image  of  God.  What  I  have 
hitherto  argued  for  as  a  possibility^  in  this  higher 
sphere,  is  fact.  Man  is  not  a  thing.,  but  a  jpoiver^ 
"  working  all  things,"  within  the  limited  area  allot- 
ted him,  "  after  the  counsel  of  his  own  will ;"  tak- 
ing hold  of  the  raw  material  of  things,  and,  recom- 
bining  its  forms  and  relations  and  forces,  getting 
at  results  which  J^ature  alone  never  could  have 
attained,  the  conception  and  realization  of  which 
are  due  to  the  intervention  and  controlling  supre- 
macy of  Mind,  which  thus  asserts  its  supernatural 
character  and  prerogative  by  crossing,  suspending, 
or  invigorating  the  functions  and  j)i'Ocesses  of 
^Nature,  in  the  accomplishment  of  purposes  above 
Nature ;  in  meeting  necessities  of  which  ITature 
knows  nothing,  breaking  through  the  environment 


TO   THE   CHRISTIAN   FAITH.  110 

of  economic  restrictions,  or  bending  them  to  tlie 
furtherance  of  thought,  affection,  aspiration ;  mould- 
ing the  crude  clay  of  things  into  marvelous  forms 
of  beauty,  or  directing  it  to  liigli  and  beneficent 
uses ;  seeking,  through  all  combinations,  processes, 
scrutinies,  to  read  the  riddle  of  moral  being,  to  find 
some  prophecy  of  a  higher  destiny,  to  catch  some 
echo  of  a  voice  which  may  lead  us  through  "  this 
dim  obscure,"  into  the  light  and  joy  of  an  eternal 
home!  Has  any  such  A'oice  been  heard  in  our 
world?  AVe  arc  in  quest  of  an  answer  to  that 
inquiry. 

A  footing  for  the  argument  is  conceded  then. 
If  man  is  a  wonder-worker,  we  may  possibly  dis- 
cover groimd  for  faith  in  a  7mracle-^vovker.  AVlien 
we  have  climbed  to  the  plane  of  man's  inferior  lord- 
ship of  Nature,  the  ascent  is  continuous  still,  and  wc 
climb  up  through  hint  and  inference,  tlu'ough  ana- 
logy, intuition,  revelation,  to  the  uppermost  con- 
ceivable plane  of  an  infinite  Intelligence  and  Power. 
The  human  will  is  the  acknowledged  spring  of  a 
spontaneous  energy.  Somewhere  there  must  be  a 
Fountain-head  of  that  energy  which  streams  through 
all  the  avenues  and  conduits  of  creation.  By  the 
causal  intervention  of  man  upon  the  order  and  se- 
quences of  Nature,  results  are  reached  confessedly 
praeter-natural.     It  cannot   be  deemed  a  shocking 


120  THE   KELATION   OF   MIRACLES 

impiety  therefore,  or  a  merely  conventional  super- 
stition, to  conceive  of  Almighty  God  other  than  as 
an  idle  spectator  of  the  automatic  movements  of  a 
manifold  organism.  Christianity  is  a  bold  and  per- 
sistent affirmation  of  the  fact,  that  God  not  only  • 
constructed  the  organism,  but  that  lie  directs  its 
movements,  and  that  at  certain  epochs  of  its  history, 
imder  special  groups  of  conditions.  He  has  come 
down  upon  its  ordinary  workings  in  what  we  are 
Avont  to  call  a  miraculous  way.  What  is  the  char- 
acter and  value  of  the  evidence  upon  which  such  a 
claim  or  pretension  rests  ? 

The  case  may  be  broadly  stated  thus.  Jesus  Christ 
and  His  Apostles  profess  to  have  wrought,  or  it  is 
claimed  that  they  wrought,  many  wonderful  works, 
under  the  immediate  authority  and  by  the  special 
power  of  God.  I  do  not  add,  be  it  observed,  as 
"  signs"  or  authenticating  notes  of  a  Divine  commis- 
sion ;  for  that  were  an  unnecessary  and  unjust  limita- 
tion of  the  facts  in  many  cases.  All  of  Christ's  mir- 
acles may  have  been  signs  or  attestations  of  His  di- 
vine mission  hi  effect,  but  not  all  of  them  were  such 
by  immediate  and  express  design.  Many  of  the  won- 
ders wrought  by  Jesus  must  be  regarded  as  the  re- 
sults of  a  spontaneous  effluence  of  wisdom  and  good- 
■  ness,  in  connection  with  which  it  is  gratuitous  to 
find  any  evidential  design  whatever.    These  wonders 


TO    THE    CHRISTIAN   FAITH.  121 

or  signs,  it  may  be  added,  moreover,  are  so  wrought 
up  into  tlie  texture  of  the  story  of  Christ's  life,  that 
it  is  simply  impossible  to  eliminate  the  ordinary 
from  the  exceptional  elements  of  its  contents.  The 
New  Testament  records  these  events  in  a  plain, 
straiglitforward,  imambiguous  style,  as  historically 
true.  They  cannot  be  fairly  regarded  as  mere  ap- 
pendages to  the  life  and  work  of  Christ,  whicli  we 
can  reject  without  damage  to  the  substantial  integ- 
rity of  the  record,  or  to  the  coherence  and  unity  of 
the  character  and  mission  of  Jesus ;  fur  when  we 
liave  discarded  the  praeter-natural  facts  of  the 
Christian  Scrii)tures,  it  will  be  found  that  we  have 
a  very  meagre  and  fragmentary  residuum  left,  in  the 
shape  of  ethical  and  practical  precepts.  The  Incar- 
nation and  the  Hesurrection  of  Christ,  at  least,  must 
be  held  to  be  integral  factors  of  the  Gospel,  or  the 
story  of  Evangelists  and  Apostles  l)ecomes  "  another 
Gospel,"  of  which  Clu-istendoni:  lias  known  nothing, 
I  am  not  saying  that  tlic  case  Avas  actually  so,  which 
would  Ijc  to  ])reclude  all  further  argument  on  the 
subject ;  but  that  so  runs  the  record.  The  issue 
is  plain,  therefore,  and  cannot  be  evaded.  If  the 
miracles  of  Christ  are  incredible,  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  incredible ;  Christianity  is  incredible ;  for 
as  a  distinctive  system,  it  manifestly  rests  on  the 
miraculous  advent  and  work  of  One  who  said,  "  If 


122  THPJ   RELATION    OF   MIRACLES 

I  do  not  tlie  works  of  my  Futlier,  believe  me  not ; 
but  if  I  do,  though  ye  believe  not  me,  believe  the 
works." 

This  broad  statement  requires  to  be  limited,  how- 
ever, by  sundry  qualifications,  through  Avhich  the 
precision  and  force  of  the  argument  may  come  into 
fuller  view.  We  arc  to  keep  the  mind  free  of  all 
suspicion,  iu  the  first  place,  that  Christ's  miracles 
were,  in  any  true  sense,  merely  arbitrary  infrac- 
tions upon  the  domain  of  a  Divine  order.  We  are 
to  claim  for  them  rather  that  they  were  beneficent 
reassertions  and  vindications  of  such  order ;  repara- 
tions of  defective  or  diseased  parts  of  the  great 
Ivosmos,  as  when  He  healed  the  leper  or  gave  sight 
to  the  blind.  Such  phenomena  require  us  to  con- 
cede no  more  than  an  orderly  subordination  of 
secondary  to  primary  causes.  We  are  familiar  witli 
such  subordination  in  tlie  sphere  of  hitman  enter- 
prise and  achievement.  Is  it  only  when  a  Divine 
power  comes  down  upon  the  chain  of  causation,  dis- 
pensing with  intennediate  processes,  that  such  inter- 
ference is  to  be  deemed  a  lawless  intrusion  ?  The 
doctrine  of  the  late  Mr.  Baden  Powell,  of  "  a  series 
of  eternally  impressed  consequences,"  is  sometimes 
assumed  by  our  scientific  schools  to  afford  a  key  to 
the  true  interpretation  of  Nature.  Ficlite,  as  cited 
by  the  late  Dean  Mansel,  gives  us  a  very  picturesque 


TO  THE   CHRISTIAN   FAITH.  123 

Btatement  of  the  doctrine.  "  Let  us  imagine,"  says 
he,  '•  this  grain  of  sand  lying  some  few  feet  further 
inland  than  it  actually  does.     Then  must  the  storm- 

■  wind  that  drove  it  in  from  the  seasliore  have  been 
stronger  than  it  actually  was.  Then  must  the  pre- 
ceding state  of  the  atmosphere  by  which  this  wind 
was  occasioned,  and  its  degree  of  strength  deter- 
mined, have  been  different  from  what  it  was,  and 
the  previous  changes  which  gave  rise  to  this  parti- 
cular weather;  and  all  to  carry  tliis  particular  grain 
of  sand  a  few  feet  farther  than  the  point  where  it 
actually  lies  !''  All  perfectly  pertinent  and  just, 
U23on  the  one  assumption  that  there  is  nothing  in 
God's  creation  but  automatic  mechanism,  or  blind, 
determinate  forces.  But  there  is,  unless  the  con- 
sciousness and  experience  of  the  world  are  illusions 
or  lies.  The  human  Will  is  a  fountain  of  free  force, 
which  suspends  or  modifies  the  action  of  the  mighti- 
est and  most  inexorable  laws  of  Xature,  as  when  1 
lift  a  hand  or  move  a  foot,  1  arrest  or  limit  the  law 
of  gravitation  ;  and  yet  no  one  dreams  of  shock  or 

'disturbance  of  any  sort  to  the  normal  order  of 
things  from  such  interference  with  its  ordinary 
antecedents  and  seqiiences.  Only  let  the  same 
freedom  and  prerogative  be  conceded  to  the  Divine 
"Will,  on  a  higher  and  wider  plane  of  operation,  and 
what  becomes  of  the  charrce  that  a  miracle  means 


124  THE    EELATION    OF    MIRACLES 

anarchy  and  ruin  to  "  the  constitntion  and  course  of 
Nature  "?  And  yet  it  is  by  sncli  sophistical  plead- 
ing that  men  seek  to  justify  the  horror  they  affect 
to  feel  whenever  we  speak  of  the  miracles  of  Christ ! 
while  the  advocates  of  Christian  Truth  have  some- 
times incautionsly  lent  support  to  such  an  antipathy, 
in  speaking  of  a  miracle  as  a  'violation  of  natural 
law  ;  which  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  merely  A-erbal  in- 
discretion, perhaps,  in  most  instances,  but  Avhich 
allows  of  mischievous  inferences  and  applications, 
of  which  their  adversaries  have  not  been  slow  to 
take  advantage.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  phrase 
ever  gained  currency,  since  it  seems  to  imply  some 
sort  of  conflict  in  the  Divine  jjlan  and  government 
of  the  world.  "Whereas  it  must  .follow,  from  the 
conception  of  the  Supreme  Ruler  as  inflnitely  wise 
and  powerful,  that  there  can  never  have  arisen  any 
occasion  of  contradiction  or  collision  in  the  economy 
which  He  iirst  ordained  and  continues  to  administer. 
He  could  never  have  been  taken  by  surprise  by  any 
emergency  not  before-  provided  for,  nor  can  there 
possibly  have  ensiiccl  any  sort  of  failure  in  the 
accomplishment  of  His  purposes  calling  for  any 
special  intervention  of  wisdom  or  power,  which  we 
could  reasonably  regard  as  special  to  the  Divine 
Mind,  at  least,  though  possibly  appearing  special 
to  finite  Intelligences.      AVe  are  to  concei\'e  of   a 


TO   THE    CHRISriAN    FAITH.  125 

miracle,  therefore,  not  as  a  violent  irruption  of 
power  npon  the  normal  tirder  and  action  of  things, 
but  as  a  subordination  of  ordinary  to  extraordinary 
.,  causes,  ]>rovided  for  in  the  original  scheme  and  con- 
stitution of  the  universe.  And  thus  we  mav  vin- 
dicate the  place  and  function  Avhich  arc  claimed  for 
miracles,  without  resorting  to  assumptions  which  do 
violence  to  our  necessary  conceptions  of  the  Divine 
government  as  a  government  under  fixed  and  har- 
monious laws. 

We  are  to  guard,  in  the  next  place,  against  the 
conception  or  the  application  of  the  Christian  mir- 
acles as  C07nj>leto  in  tliemselves  /  as  destitute  of  all 
moral  value,  and  void  of  all  moral  aim.  T-'c  arc  to 
regard  them  rather  as  the  legitimate  effects  of 
causes  which  embraced  in  the  sco2)c  of  their  opera- 
tion and  aim  such  phenomena  as  mere  incidents  in 
their  wider  working  ;  as  links  in  a  chain  which  runs 
along  all  the  steps  and  stages  of  that  sublime  evolu- 
tion of  the  Divine  counsels  of  which  history  is  a 
fragmentary  record,  and  au  installment  of  the  jfinal 
intei-pretation.  Thus  viewed,  miracles  were  the 
natural  consequences,  so  to  speak,  of  the  advent  and 
ministry  of  a  Divine  Messenger,  which  occasion  not 
only  justified,  but  demanded  such  special  displays 
of  goodness  and  power  in  the  furtherance  of  its 
mighty  jjurposes,  in  meeting  the  exigencies  of  the 


126  THE   KELATION   OF   MIKACLES 

great  moral  epochs  of  history ;  exigencies  which 
existed  not  in  Nature^  but  in  Man^  in  that  he  had 
become  blinded  and  liardened  by  sin,  and  needed 
some  higlier  manifestation  of  the  presence  and 
power  of  God.  If  we  can  only  rise  to  a  just  and  ade- 
quate conception  of  Christ's  mission  among  men, 
it  Avill  be  easy  to  conceive  of  miracles  as  tlie  fit 
and,  shall  I  say,  necessary  accompaniments  of  such 
a  ministry.  In  the  .prosecution  of  His  sublime 
enterprise,  the  Divine  Son  of  Man  resorted  to  un- 
wonted exercises  of  wisdom  and  power,  very  much 
as  a  missionary  to  lieathen  peoples  {magna  compo- 
nere  ixirvii)  may  avail  liimself  of  the  deeper  re- 
sources of  Nature  which  Science  has  revealed,  from 
an  instinctive  benevolence,  or  to  carry  conviction  of 
liis  authority  to  the  minds  of  those  to  whom  he  is 
sent,  the  effect  of  which  may  not  only  seeiii^  but  in 
some  sense  may  actually  Jd,  miraculous  to  the  be- 
nighted intellects  of  those  around  him.  By  recom- 
bining  the  elements  and  forces  of  Kature — as  in  the 
cure  of  certain  diseases,  for  instance — he  might  work 
what  to  such  barbarians  would  be  super-human 
Avorks.  A  deeper  and  completer  knowledge  would 
regard  such  achievements  as  natural,  of  course,  as 
coming  within  the  scope  of  Nature,  or  as  resulting 
from  qualities  and  energies  potentially  in  Nature  ; 
but  they  would  be  j^/w^er-natural  to  the  savage.     I 


TO  THE   CHRISTIAN   FAITH.  127 

know  the  slippery  place  on  which  I  ain  supposed  to 
stand  while  indnl^ini^  in  such  speculations ;  and  I 
am  prepared  to  hear  the  reply :  "  That  is  just  the  ex- 
planation of  the  M'onders  you  call  miracles  in  the 
case  of  Christ."  We  may  at  least  be  thankful  to  the 
progress  of  Science  for  rendering  such  an  answer, 
nut  only  impertinent,  luit  irrational,  in  the  sense 
intended  by  our  adversaries.  Every  theory  pro- 
posed to  account  for  the  miracles  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  "wrought  by  any  sort  of  legerdemain,  or  by 
the  occult  knowledge  and  use  of  merely  natural  im- 
plements and  resources  as  then  or  now  known  to 
men,  has  been  discredited,  and  is  now  abandoned 
by  all.  What  I  have  been  just  aiming  to  suggest  is, 
such  a  conception  of  the  miracles  of  Jesus  as  may 
reconcile  us  to  the  habit  of  regarding  them,  not  as 
i/^i-natural,  still  less  as  anti-natural ;  but  simply  as 
being  heyond  Kature  as  we  Tcnoio  it,  but  not  as  be- 
yond Nature  an  God  knows  it;  by  extending  the 
term  into  the  upper  realm  of  Divine  Providence, 
for  which  I  may  claim  the  indorsement  of  Joseph 
Butler." 

And,  finally,  in  the  way  of  qualification :  let  us 
aim  to  get  an  intelligent  grasp  upon  the  function 
and  jJurpose  of  miracles  in  their  relation  to   the 

*  Analogy,  p.  ii.  cliap.  ii. 


128  THE   RELATION   OF   MIRACLES 

Christian  Faith.  Most  men  of  discernment  have 
been  broiiglit  to  acknowledge  tliat  the  place  com- 
monly assigned  to  miracles  in  the  Evidences  of 
Christianity  Avas  once  too  high  and  exclusive ;  while 
they  are  sometimes  disparaged  in  our  day  as  not 
only  worthless,  hut  as  an  incumbrance  to  the  Chris- 
tian apologist.  "  Miracles,"  it  has  been  said,  "  in- 
stead of  affording  satisfactory  proof  of  any  thing,  are 
now  usually  found  in  the  dock,  instead  of  the  w^it- 
ness-box,  of  the  court  of  criticisni."  And  in  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  partial  justice  of  this  caveat, 
Christian  scholars  are  found  discussing  the  credl- 
hility  of  miracles,  and  seeking  to  determine  the  ques- 
tion whether  the  doctrine  proves  the  miracle^  or  the 
miracle  the  doctrine.  Such  an  attitude  of  mind  be- 
trays confusion  or  perversion  of  intellect.  No  such 
sharp  line  can  be  run  between  the  various  kinds  of 
evidence  which  may  be  brought  in  proof  of  the 
truth  of  the  Christian  religion  ;  no  absolute  and  in- 
variable precedence  can  be  established  in  behalf  of 
any  one  line  of  evidence  over  others.  Justl}^  re- 
garded, they  arc  not  merely  mutually  sustaining, 
but  constituent  parts  of  a  complex  whole.  From 
one  point  of  view,  or  in  regard  to  one  condition  of 
the  moral  nature,  the  Avords  of  Jesus  may  be  final 
and  sufficient,  "  If  any  man  will  do  his  will,  he 
shall  know  of  the  doctrine  that  it  is  of  God  ;"  while 


TO   THE   CHRISTIAN   FAITH.  129 

to  men  of  another  temper  and  complexion  of  clia- 
raeter,  lie  may  say,  "  Go,  and  tell  what  things  ye 
hear  and  see."  From  the  one  point  of  view  or 
tone  of  mind,  we  may  say  with  IVIr.  Coleridge, 
"  The  evidences  of  Christanity  are — Christianity  ;" 
while  from  another,  we  may  say  with  John  Foster, 
''  Miracles  tolled  the  great  bell  of  the  Universe,  and 
Christianity  was  the  sermon  that  followed."'  The 
two  lines  of  light  converge  to  the  same  point.  The 
supernatnral  spiritual  power  within,  flowed  forth,  as 
occasion  called,  in  supernatural  expressions  of  love 
or  wisdom  or  might  without.  The  life  was  one  ;  all 
its  effluences  were  from  the  same  source,  all  its  pur- 
poses had  the  same  end.  "We  forget  this,  and  go 
astray  sometimes  in  the  use  of  technical  distinctions, 
or  in  attempting  to  distribute  the  phenomena  into 
independent  groups.  Some  of  the  manifestations 
of  Christ's  character  we  look  upon  as  exceptional, 
and  we  call  them  miraculous  ;  but  only  to  our  lower 
and  limited  apprehension  were  they  such ;  not  as 
involving  any  incoherence,  or  want  of  unity  of  any 
sort,  in  the  character  itself.  Miracles  are  nothing 
but  stupendous  marvels  when  A'iewed  alone.  They 
prove  nothing ;  they  mean  nothing ;  they  are  em- 
barrassments in  the  way  of  Faith.  But  viewed  as 
part  of  a  system  of  things  having  the  same  origin 
and  inspiration  and  end,  in  the  line  of  a  continuous 


130       THE  RELATION  OF  MIRACLES 

evolution  of  moral  and  spiritual  teaching,  as  steps 
toward  the  great  consummation  which  Christ  came 
to   accomplish,    miracles   take   their   j)lace   in   the 
evolving  order,  as  at  once  authenticating  and  au- 
thenticated "  signs"  of  a  mission    which  is  essen- 
tially supernatural  in  its  "whole  conception,  execu- 
tion, and  aim.     We  must  look  at  the  whole  of  the 
case,  in  forming  an  estimate  of  the  function  and 
purpose  of  miracle  ;  at  the  preliminary  dispensa- 
tions of  God's  wisdom  and  grace ;  at  the  exigencies 
of  time,  and  place,  and  moral  condition,  when  and 
in  which  the  signs  and  wonders  are  alleged  to  have 
been  wrought ;  trying,  above  all,  to  take  in  some- 
thing like  an  adequate  conception  of  the  person  and 
office  of  Christ ;  of  tlie  breadth  and  elevation  and 
simplicity  and  beauty  of  His  character ;  of  the  mani- 
festly exceptional  place  He  fills  in  the  moral  econo- 
my of  the  world,  and  in  the  unfolding  of  the  plan 
of  God,  and  of  the  solemn  and  everlasting  issues  of 
His  life  and  death.     Take  all  into  accoimt,  and  what 
appeared  to   be   incidental  discrepancies,  perhaps, 
before  will  resolve  themselves  into  order  and  har- 
mony ;   seemingly  discordant  facts  will  be   found 
mutually    sustaining  ;    while  devious  lines  of   evi- 
dence will  be  seen  to  blend  into  one  mighty  and 
transcendent  testimony  to  the  truth  of  historical 
Christianity.  - 


TO   THE   CURISTIAN    FAITH.  131 

In  the  statement  of  tliese  prccantions,  I  liavc  in- 
dicated, and  to  some  extent  delined,  "what  I  hokl  to 
be  the  just  "  Rehition  of  Miracles  to  tlie  Chris- 
tian Faith."  By  the  Faith,  I  understand  the  great 
facts  and  doctrines  of  tlie  New  Testament.  It  is 
no  part  of  my  task  to  state  tlic  grounds  upon  which 
these  are  supposed  to  rest.  They  are  such,  at  least, 
as  cannot  be  fairly  passed  by  as  if  in  contempt  by 
the  apostles  of  the  prevalent  unl)elief.  Yet  this  is 
the  style  in  which  the  evidence  brought  to  sustain 
the  credibility  of  the  Christian  miracles  is  common- 
ly treated  in  our  day.  Those  who  claim  to  speak  in 
disj)roof  of  such  credibility,  in  the  name  of  modern 
Science,  presume  to  ignore  generally  the  data  de- 
rived from  other  spheres  of  thought  and  investiga- 
tion, and  the  question  is  therefore  discussed  and 
hastily  decided  according  to  the  canons  and  postu- 
lates of  physical  philosophy  merely.  It  is  assumed 
that  the  witness  of  Nature,  or  of  professed  interpre- 
tations of  Nature  which  we  call  Science,  is  exhaus- 
tive and  final,  which  to  the  intelligent  Christian 
apologist  betrays  a  willful  perverseness.  It  is  sure- 
ly open  to  us  to  demand  tliat  the  case  shall  not  be 
closed  against  us  in  this  arbitrary  and  offensive  way. 
If  any  evidence  of  a  counter  or  even  qualifying 
character  and  tendency  can  establish  a  presumptive 
right  to  be  heard,  it  can  not  be  fairly  refused  on  the 


132  THE   RELATION   OF    MIRACLES 

assumption  of  the  exclusive  validity  of  the  criteria 
of  Physical  Science.  For  not  only  may  those  criteria 
be  made  to  do  good  service  in  support  of  other  and 
opposite  conclusions,  hut  the  question  is  one  in 
which  Spiritual  Philosophy  and  Historical  Criticism 
are  profoundly  interested,  and  to  the  just  determi- 
nation of  which  they  profess  their  ability  to  bring 
indispensable  testimony.  AVe  simply  say,  let  it  be 
received,  and  let  it  be  well  and  honestly  weighed, 
and  Christian  Faith  will  abide  the  issue. 

I  am  not  recpiired,  in  the  prosecution  of  my  pre- 
sent purpose,  to  attempt  even  a  hasty  survey  of  all 
tlie  varied  evidences  which  conspire  to  demonstrate 
the  supernatural  claims  of  Christianity.  I  assumed 
the  substantial  truth  of  tlie  Gospel  histories  as  a 
postulate  in  the  debate,  and  this  is  guaranteed  by 
evidence  as  valid  and  conclusive  for  its  own  ends 
as  the  evidence  upon  which  the  conclusions  of  Sci- 
ence repose.  Criticism  may  require  us  to  dispense 
with  some  things  in  the  received  Kecord,  but  they 
are  of  insignificant  value.  "  The  foundation  stand- 
cth  sure,"  om*  adversaries  being  witness.  The  nm- 
tually  exclusive  or  destructive  attempts  of  Paulus, 
Strauss,  Schleiermacher,  and  Eenan  to  divest  the 
Christ  of  the  Gospels  of  all  supernatural  attributes 
may  suffice  to  prove  that  the  great  problem  can  not 
be  thus  solved  ;  that  we  can  not  consistently  retain 


TO   TUE   CHRISTIAN    FAITH.  133 

faith  in  the  transcendent  excellence  and  heauty  of 
tlie  character  of  Jesus  as  a  man,  and  dismiss  all 
higher  claims  as  "  cunningly  devised  fables."  We 
are  compelled  to  admit  a  su])eriiatural  element  to 
explain  the  natural ;  the  human  facts  in  the  life 
and  character  of  Jesus  can  only  be  rendered  con- 
sistent by  the  admission  of  claims  that  arc  essen- 
tially Divine.  The  Gospels  are  reduced  to  a  mass 
of  fragmentary  incongruities  when  we  have  elimi- 
nated all  the  elements  which  an  infidel  rationalism 
rejects.  ''  Stubbornly  and  obstinately  the  narra- 
tives refuse  to  be  so  dealt  with."  A\^xi  cannot  thus 
undo  the  subtle  interpenetrations  of  admitted  fact 
and  alleged  fiction  in  the  fourfold  Biography.  The 
two  are  so  organically  and  vitally  blended  that  they 
can  never  be  fairly  disentangled.  We  may  cut  the 
knot ;  it  can  never  be  untied  by  the  most  relentless 
criticism.  The  admission  of  fiction  discredits  essen- 
tial facts ;  while  if  the  claim  be  once  allowed  that 
Christ  was  at  least  "a  teacher  sent  from  God,"  or 
such  a  teacher  as  the  Evangelists  portray,  all  the 
marvelous  words  and  works  ascribed  to  Ilim  in  their 
writings  gather  round  the  image  of  His  person  in  a 
vital  coherence  and  harmonious  order.  An  interior 
imity  reveals  itself  in  the  records  of  His  life,  which 
can  never  be  accounted  for  by  the  coarse  imputa- 
tion of  fraudj  nor  by  ascribing  it  to  the  invention 


134      MIRACLES  AND   THE   CHRISTIAN   FAITH. 

of  a  wonder-loving  fanaticism.  The  character  of 
Christ,  with  only  the  lineaments  allowed  by  a  hos- 
tile criticism,  is  the  one  standing  miracle  which  au- 
thenticates or  Avliich  renders  credible  all  the  signs 
and  wonders  of  the  Gospels,  while  the  signal  revo- 
lution which  Christianity  wrought  in  the  moral 
world  within  a  generation  of  its  birth  confirms  the 
sublime  claim,  to  which  eighteen  centuries  have 
added  an  unbroken  testimony,  and  of  which  living 
Christendom  is  the  visible  and  stupendous  monu- 
ment. 


THE  ONEiNESS  OF  SCRIPTURE. 


BY 

WILLIAM    II.    HUNTINGTON,   D.D., 

Rector  of  Ali.  Saikts'  C'ultrcu,  Worcester,  Mass. 


THE  ONENESS  OF  SCRIl'TUllE. 


«...  the  Scripture  can  not  be  broken."-JonN  10  :  35. 
That  wliicli  Christ  here  says  can  not  be  done,  a 
thousand  forces  in  onr  day  are  laboring  to  accom- 
plish. To  break  the  Scripture,  to  dismember  the 
body  of  revelation,  to  tear  into  a  multitude  of 
unconnected  parts  a  volume  which  the  common  in-^ 
stinctof  Christians  has  hitherto  affirmed  to  be  one 
book,  is  the  present  endeavor  of  those  who  think 
it  high  time  for  intelligent  men  to  be  startmg  m 
search  of  a  new  religion. 

The  line  of  attack  is  well  chosen.  To  the  casual 
eye  appearances  more  or  less  favor  the  opinion  that 
theBible  is  simply  the  classic literatm-e  of  a  people 
^hose  line  of  thinking  lay  in  the  direction  of  reli- 

^' How  can  oneness,  it  is  urged,  be  attributed  to 
a  collection    of   historical,   poetical,   and  epistola-^ 
ry  writings,  which  confessedly  range,  as  to  their 
date  of  composition,  over  a  period  of  many  centu- 
ries, and  which  are  known  to  have  come  from  the 


138  THE    ONENESS    OF   SCRIPTURE. 

hands  of  at  least  forty  or  fifty  different  contribu- 
tors? 

With  many  minds,  the  mere  statement  of  the 
proposition  is  the  refutal  of  it.  The  thesis  strikes 
tliem  as  involving  absurdity  in  its  very  terms.  And 
yet,  in  the  face  of  this  incredulous  and,  as  it  would 
seem,  reasonably  incredulous  spirit,  Christians  have 
the  boldness  to  maintain  that,  notwithstanding  its 
wide  s\veep  of  dialects  and  styles  and  topics,  the 
Bible  does  possess  unity  in  the  very  most  complete 
and  thorough  sense  the  word  can  bear. 

Before  undertaking  to  investigate  the  grounds  of 
this  conviction  entertained  by  Christians,  let  us  first 
•attempt  to  form  a  clear  notion  of  what  we  mean 
when  we  claim  for  any  book  the  characteristic  of 
unity.  That  a  certain  number  of  printed  pages  are 
contained  between  two  covers  may  justify  a  libra- 
rian in  saying,  "  This  is  a  book  ;"  but  it  would  not 
justify  a  reader  in  saying,  "  This  is  one  book." 

Take  a  collection  of  pamphlets,  on  various  dis- 
connected topics,  which  somebody,  for  convenience' 
sake,  perhaps  because  the  pages  were  of  the  same 
length  and  breadth,  has  had  bound  up  into  a  single 
volume — shall  we  say  of  these,  that  they  are  one 
*'book  ?  l^ot  if  we  wish  to  use  language  accurately. 
The  only  unity  the  pamphlets  have  acquired  by  be- 
ing stitched  together  is  of  a  purely  external  and  ma- 


THE   ONENESS  OF   SCRIPTURE.  139 

terial  sort.  They  have  been  made  into  one  volume, 
but  not  into  one  book. 

Suppose,  now,  another  case.  A  writer,  who  has 
contributed  essays  on  various  subjects  to  literary 
periodicals,  makes  up  his  mind  to  collect  and  pub- 
lish them.  lie  does  so.  What  shall  we  say  of  the 
result  ?  Is  it  one  book  ?  Yes  ;  in  a  certain  sense, 
it  may  fairly  be  called  so.  It  has  one  important 
element  of  unity — unity  of  authorship.  A  single 
mind  has  conceived  and  wrought  out  all  that  the 
volume  contains.  This  was  not  true  of  the  bound 
pamphlets. 

Take  still  another  case.  Here  are  various  wri- 
ters, who  have  a  common  interest  in  some  j)articular 
subject.  "We  will  suppose  it  to  be  a  very  large 
subject — so  large  that  a  single  mind  would  scarcely 
be  able  to  grasp  all  the  details  of  it.  These  asso- 
ciates, therefore,  join  forces,  and  divide  the  work 
among  them.  How  shall  Ave  characterize  the  pro- 
duct of  their  combined  efforts  ?  Is  it  one  book  ?  I 
answer  as  before — yes,  in  a  partial  sense,  it  is.  The 
book  has  this  one  important  element  of  unity — 
oneness  of  subject.  The  various  authors  have  all 
concentrated  their  attention,  by  common  consent, 
upon  a  single  field. 

Sufier  me  one  more  instance.  Suppose  the  case 
of  a  man  who  has  made  up  his  mind  to  write  a  work 


140  THE    ONENESS    OF    SCRIPTURE. 

upon  some  topic  wliicli  lie  lias  long  studied  and 
thoroughly  mastered.  lie  arranges  his  materials. 
He  lays  out  his  plan.  He  determines  how  much 
space  he  will  assign  to  this  branch  of  his  subject, 
how  much  to  that.  He  is  as  careful  as  a  painter 
would  be  about  his  lights  and  shades,  determined 
that  his  work  shall  be  symmetrical,  well  balanced, 
evenly  done ;  he  sees  the  end  from  the  begin- 
ning, and,  while  carefully  elaborating  each  separate 
feature  and  limb,  never  allows  himself  to  forget  for 
a  moment  the  desired  effect  of  the  perfect  whole. 
Now,  what  shall  wc  say  of  this  book?  Certainly 
we  call  say  no  less  of  it  than  that  it  possesses  the 
very  j^erfection  of  literary  unity.  The  l)Ound 
"jiamphlets  had  only  a  material  oneness.  The  book 
of  miscellaneous  essays  conld  claim  "unity  of  a  better 
sort — that  of  authorship.  The  encyclopaedia,  com- 
piled by  various  hands,  possessed  another,  but  still 
partial,  kind  of  unity — the  unity  of  su])ject.  In  the 
case  last  supposed,  and  only  in  that,  do  we  iiiid 
unity  complete.  This  is,  in  very  deed  and  truth, 
not  only  one  volume,  but  one  book. 

The  Christian  believer,  as  I  have  said,  claims  for 
the  Scriptures  this  perfection  of  unity.  They  have, 
he  declares,  one  author  and  one  subject — their  au- 
thor, God  ;  their  subject,  God's  revelation  of  Him- 
self in  Jesus  Christ. 


THE   ONENESS   OF   SCRIPTURE.  141 

The  names  commonly  given  to  the  Scriptures  are 
indicative  of  this  confidence  in  their  unity.  We 
call  them  the  "  Word  of  God,"  thus  signifying  our 
faith  in  their  common  origin.  AYc  call  them  "  the 
Bible,"  because,  although  this  M'ord  might  mean, 
and  in  early  English  did  mean,  any  book,  we  count 
the  Word  of  God  pre-eminently  worthy  to  be  call- 
ed, of  all  books,  the  book.  Such  is  the  Christian's 
claim.  Can  it  be  substantiated  ?  For  the  handling 
of  this  question,  we  are  here  to-night.  Let  us  take 
up  the  inquiry  in  earnest,  and  prosecute  it  without 

fear. 

I  remark,  then,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  Chris- 
tian's faith  in  the  unity  of  the  Bible  rests  on  the  ba- 
sis of  a  conviction  that  lies  deeper  still — namely,  on 
the  belief  that  human  history  has  unity,  and  that  a 
never-failing  Providence  ordereth  all  things,  both 
in  heaven  and  earth.  Only  with  those  who  are 
willing  to  concede  this  postulate  will  any  argument 
for  the  oneness  of  the  Scriptures  carry  much 
weight. 

Three  views  of  history  are  possible,  and  only 
three.  The  first  is  the  purely  atheistic  view.  We 
may  look  at  the  events  of  the  far-reaching  past  in 
the  same  mood  in  which  we  watch  the  motion  of  the 
tangled  burden  of  branches,  roots,  and  drift-wood 
under  which  a  swollen  river,  in  a  spring  freshet, 


142  THE   ONENESS   OF  SCllIPTUEE. 

hurries  to  the  sea.  History  is  a  mere  chaos  of  facts, 
linked  to  each  other  in  no  definite  relationship. 
Monarchs  have  succeeded  monarchs  ;  dynasties  have 
risen,  flourished,  and  sunk  into  decay  ;  lands  have 
been  invaded  ;  institutions  overthrown ;  cities  build- 
ed  and  destroyed  ;  but  in  it  all  there  has  been  no 
progress ;  no  evolution  of  a  creative  thought ;  no 
carrying  out  of  an  original  purpose.  According 
to  this  view,  the  chronicle  is  the  only  legitimate 
form  of  history.  Man  may  keep  his  diary,  but 
must  not  dream  of  writing  his  autobiography. 
He  may  accumulate  his  facts,  but  woe  be  to  him  if 
he  ventures  upon  an  interpretation  of  them. 

A  step,  and  only  a  step,  in  advance  of  the  simply 
godless  historians  stand  those  who  are  willing  to  ad- 
mit, nay,  who  are  forward  to  claim  that  there  is  an 
order  observable  in  human  events,  but  who  argue 
that  the  order  is  of  such  a  sort  as  can  only  be  under- 
stood in  the  light  of  census  reports  and  geographi- 
cal statistics. 

The  historical  philosophers  of  this  school  discern 
not  only  "  a  tide  in  the  affairs  of  men,"  but  a  law  of 
tides  ;  and  for  the  chronicle  substitute  the  almanac. 
But  when  we  ask  them  who  ordained  the  laws  of 
sociology,  whose  are  the  thoughts  which  political 
economy  strives  to  formulate,  they  fall  back  on  the 
ancient  dogma,  "  There  is  no  God." 


THE   ONENESS   OF   SCIUPTURE.  143 

Again,  tliere  are  those  who  base  their  view  of 
history  upon  a  dogma  the  opposite  of  that  just 
quoted.  They  start  with  the  persuasion,  "  Doubt- 
less there  is  a  God  that  judgcth  the  earth."  Set- 
ting out  in  this  spirit,  they  iind  it  easy  to  disco- 
ver that  lie  whose  existence  is  the  first  article  of 
their  creed  has  not  left  Himself  without  witness  in 
the  world.  "Way -marks  are  abundant  to  tell  them 
where  this  Living  God  has  passed.  And  gradually, 
so  strong  does  this  persuasion  of  the  presence  of  that 
Hand  in  history  become  that,  even  when  faith  is 
tried  and  confidence  shaken,  the  same  instinct  that 
prompts  the  astronomer  to  believe  in  the  universal 
prevalence  of  IS^ewton's  law,  in  the  face  of  some 
phenomena  that  seem  to  make  against  it,  the  same 
sort  of  instinct  assures  the  devout  student, 

"  That  God  is  on  the  field  when  He 
Is  most  invisible." 

Well  then,  among  the  facts  that  confront  the 
theist — I  do  not  say  the  Christian,  for  I  am  aiming 
to  put  forward  an  argument  that  shall  have  weight 
with  all  who  confess  any  faith  in  a  personal,  self- 
conscious  God — among  the  facts  that  confront  the 
theist,  be  he  Christian  or  non-Christian,  and  clamor 
for  an  interpretation,  are  conspicuously  two. 

The  first   of  these  is  the  existence,  in  ancient 


144  THE   ONENESS   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

times,  of  a  single  nation  devoted  to  the  worship 
and  service  of  a  God  to  whom  were  attributed  unity, 
conscious  personality,  omnipresence,  and  holiness. 
The  modern  mind  rather  begrudges  the  Hebrew 
race  its  title  of  "  the  chosen  people."  There 
is  a  growing  indisposition  to  allow  that  He  who 
made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  can  possibly 
have  cared  for  any  particular  race  more  favorably 
than  for  another.  But  if  there  be,  as  there  un- 
doubtedly is,  some  law  of  selection  ruling  in  natural 
history,  why  is  it  unreasonable  to  hold  that  God 
has  followed  an  analogous  principle  of  election  in 
spiritual  history?  Be  that  as  it  may,  modern 
thought  professes,  and  rightly,  a  profound  regard 
for  facts.  ITow,  it  is,  I  believe,  an  acknowledged 
historical  fact,  account  for  it  as  we  may,  that  of  the 
various  peoplea.  of  antiquity,  the  Hebrew  was  the 
only  one  whose  tradition  of  God  guarded  with 
equal  and  impartial  jealousy  the  four  central  attri- 
butes I  just  now  named — unity,  conscious  per- 
sonality, omnipresence,  and  holiness.  Of  the  na- 
tions around,  there  were  many  that  believed  in  the 
onmipresence  of  Deity ;  but  they  either  sacrificed 
the  divine  unity  by  multiplying  gods,  or  they  lost 
their  hold  upon  the  divine  personality  by  wor- 
shiping the  all-soul  diffused  through  nature;  or 
they  robbed  the  Eternal  of  His  attribute  of  holi- 


THE   OXENESS   OF   SCRIPTURE.  145 

nes?,  by  l»lotting  the  distinction  between  the  pure 
and  the  impure,  the  clean  and  the  nnclean. 

To  the  Hebrew  only  was  it  given  to  knoM^  Jeho- 
vah as  the  One  Lord,  present  in  nature* while  yet 
throned  above  all  Avorlds  ;  glorious  in  holiness,  fear- 
ful in  praises,  doing  wonders.  Well  might  the  hea- 
then sorcerer  exclaim,  as  he  stood  on  the  mountain- 
top,  gazing  with  reluctant  admiration  at  the  ordered 
encampment  of  the  pilgrim  host,  "  How  goodly  are 
thy  tents,  O  Jacob !  and  thy  tabernacles,  O  Israel ! 
Blessed  is  he  that  blesseth  thee,  and  cursed  is  he 
that  curseth  thee." 

The  consistency  with  which  this  stern,  uncom- 
promising theism  is  clung  to,  throughout  the  Old 
Testament,  has  something  very  striking  about  it. 
Xo  doubt  there  is  an  abundance  of  wickedness  re- 
corded there  ;  apostasy  from  the  pure  faith  is  fre- 
quent ;  treason  against  the  unseen  King  continually 
repeats  itself  ;  but  every  now  and  then  the  voices  of 
the  men  of  God,  like  the  chorus  in  the  Greek  tra- 
gedy, utter  their  comment,  and  the  goodly  fellow- 
ship of  the  prophets  make  themselves  heard,  as  the 
spokesmen  of  the  Lord  Jehovah. 

And  this  consistency  of  tone  and  spirit,  pervad- 
ing so  many  seemingly  disconnected  writings,  is  the 
more  remarkable  when  we  observe  that  not  only  in 
what  they  say,  but  also  in  what  they  are  oarefulnot 


1-iG  THE   ONENESS   OF   SCltlPTURE. 

to  saj,  do  tlieso  writers  harmonize  with  one  another. 
"The  silence  of  Scripturo,"  as  has  been  well  re- 
marked, is  sometimes  as-  eloquent  as  its  speech.  A 
single  reference  mnst  sufHce. 

The  belief  in  the  realltj  of  magic  was  almost 
universal  anion":  the  Eastern  nations  durino;  the 
whole  period  covered  by  the  Old  Testament.  !Now, 
if  the  notion  that  the  various  books  of  the  Bible 
embody  the  opinions  that  Avere  generally  prevalent 
at  the  times  when  they  were  written  were  true,  or 
if  Coleridge's  dictum,  borrowed  from  Germany, 
that  the  Old  Testament  canon  is  simply  the  remains 
of  the  Hebrew  Clialdaic  literature,  prior  to  the  time 
of  Ezra"" — if  either  of  these  assumptions  Avere  cor- 
rect, then  we  should  expect  to  find  in  these  writings 
what  we  do  find  in  the  Talmud  and  the  Koran — 
plentiful  allusions  to  the  peril  of  magical  influences. 
"  But,"  says  Mr,  Beginald  Poole,  one  of  the  most 
eminent  of  living  authorities,  "  it  is  a  distinctive 
characteristic  of  the  Bible  that,  from  first  to  last,  it 
Avarrants  no  such  trust  or  dread.  In  the  Psalms, 
the  most  personal  of  all  the  books  of  Scripture, 
there  is  no  prayer  to  be  protected  against  magical 
influences.  The  believer  prays  to  be  delivered  from 
every  kind  of  evil  that  could  hurt  the  body  or  the 

*"  Confessions   of  an   Inquiring  Spirit."     Works  (Sliedd^s 
Edition),  vol,  v.,  p.  013. 


THE    ONENESS   OF   SCRIPTURE.  147 

soul,  but  he  says  nothing  of  the  niacliinations  of  sor- 
cerers. Here,  as  else\vhere,  magic  is  passed  by,  or 
is  mentioned  only  to  be  condemned.  Let  those," 
jlie  adds,  '"  who  aihrm  that  tlicy  st'o  in  the  Psalms 
only  human  i)iety,  and  in  Job  and  Eoclesiastes 
merely  human  philosophy,  explain  the  absence  in 
them  and  throughout  the  Scriptures  of  the  expres- 
sion of  superstitious  feelings  that  are  inherent  in  the 
Shemite  mind."" 

This,  then,  is  the  Urst  fact  to  be  accounted  for  in 
framing  our  philosophy  of  history — the  existence  in 
remote  anti^piity  of  a  separate  people,  who  held  un- 
flinchingly to  a  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  God- 
head which  has  stood  the  test  of  theological  criti- 
cism through  all  subsequent  time. 

The  second  fact  is  the  phenomenon  we  call  mo- 
dern civilization.  Great  efforts  have  been  made  of 
late  to  depreciate  the  share  Christianity  lias  liad  in 
moulding  society  into  its  present  shape.  AVe  are 
cautioned  against  allowing  our  sense  of  indebtedness 
to  Judea  to  blind  us  to  the  claims  of  Greece  and 
Eome  and  Egypt  on  our  gratitude. f 

*Dr.  Smith's  "Dictionary  of  the  Bible."  Art.,  Magic.  Am. 
Ed.,  vol.  ii.,p.  1742. 

■j- Jolin  Stuart  Mill  "On  Liberty."  Am.  Ed.,  ]).  05.  See  also 
in  a  similar  strain  Leckey's  "History  of  European  Morals,"  vol. 
ii.,  p.  149. 


1:1:8  THE   ONENESS   OF   SCRIPTUEE. 

Yet,  when  we  come  to  study  the  marvelous  ad- 
vances in  ahnost  every  department  of  knowledge 
and  art  by  which  our  times  are  distinguished,  it  is 
impossible  not  to  notice  the  fact  that  the  progress  in 
question  has  been  almost  exclusively  confined  to 
what  are  known  as  the  "  Christian  "  nations. 

The  Arabic  achievements  furnish  no  real  excep- 
tion to  this  statement,  for,  as  has  been  acutely  ob- 
served, Islam  has  more  the  nature  of  a  heresy  than 
of  a  false  reliofion.  Of  the  twelve  hundred  million 
inhabitants  of  the  globe,  only  about  one  fourth  part 
are  nominally  Christian,  but  among  this  fourth 
part,  this  fraction  of  the  race,  is  to  be  found  almost 
if  not  quite  exclusively  that  spirit  of  progress 
which  is  our  modern  boast.  Asia  and  Africa,  with 
their  eight  hundred  millions,  stand  still,  as  they 
have  stood  still  for  centuries.  Europe  and  America, 
Christian  and  enlightened,  press  forward  with  a 
restless  energy  and  steadfast  purpose,  before  which 
the  gates  of  seemingly  unconquerable  difficulty  fall 
down.  Explain  it  as  we  will,  this  is  the  simple, 
bare,  statistical  fact.  The  Christian  nations  are  on 
the  mal'ch,  the  heathen  nations  are  at  the  halt. 
Christendom  is  hopeful,  buoyant,  aggressive  ;  hea- 
thendom, despondent,  stationary,  dead. 

"With  our  eyes  fresh  from  their  momentary  glance 
at  these  two  prominent  facts  in  the  world's  hisfory, 


THE   ONENESS   OF   SCRIPTURE.  140 

Ave  turn  now  to  the  question  immediately  before  us 
— the  unity  of  the  Scripture.  What  is  the  Bible? 
What  does  it  profess  to  be  ?  Let  us  open  it  and  as- 
certain. We  find  two  principal  divisions,  called 
Testaments,  Old  and  New.  They  used  once  to  be 
knoM'n  as  ''  Instruments,''  and  perhaps  it  wuuhl 
have  been  well  if  they  could  have  kept  the  name 
till  now,  for  it  is  one  that  seems  to  make  the  two 
hemispheres  of  revelation  explain  themselves  as 
God's  modes  of  handling  His  M'orld.  Lord  Bacon 
entitled  the  work  which  was  destined  to  revolution- 
ize the  scientific  methods  oi  his  day,  jS'ovuni 
Orgamim,  but  none  would  have  been  more  for- 
ward than  that  great  thinker  to  confess  that  his 
new  instrument  could  not  have  been  forged  but 
for  the  old  instrument  that  had  preceded  it.  It 
was  from  the  vantage-ground  of  the  ancient  learn- 
ing that  the  modern  took  its  departure.  And  so, 
as  we  shall  see  in  the  case  of  these  two  instruments 
in  the  one  Bible,  there  is  no  real  breaking  of  the 
Scripture — tlie  Old  is  simply  parent  of  the  !New. 
For  look  at  it !  These  Testaments  taken  together 
give  us  what  no  other  existing  volume  undertakes  to 
give — namely,  an  interpretation  of  those  tAvo  com- 
manding facts  to  which  I  have  referred  as  towering 
np,  head  and  shoulders,  above  all  the  other  pheno- 
mena of  historv.     The  Old  Testament  tells  us  how 


150  THE    ONENESS   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

and  for  M'liat  purpose  the  tradition  of  the  I10I3'  God 
was  kept  alive.  The  Kew  Testament  tells  ns  how 
and  for  what  purpose  the  foundations  of  Christen- 
dom wei-c  laid.  Discard  these  two  Scriptures,  and 
you  lose  your  chief  materials  for  moulding  a  phi-  ' 
losophy  of  history.  Deny  their  connection,  and 
straightway  you  make  them  unintelligible. 

We  touch  here  the  pivot-point  of  our  inquiry,  for 
we  find  ourselves  in  the  j)resence  of  the  test  f[ues- 
tion,  which,  sooner  or  later,  in  every  full  discussion 
of  social  and  religious  problems,  forces  itself  to  the 
front :  What  think  ye  of  Christ  ?  We  see  Ilini  to 
be  plainly  the  one  and  only  subject  of  the  later  Scrip- 
ture ;  is  lie  also,  what  lie  resolutely  and  steadfastly 
claimed  to  be,  the  one  and  only  subject  of  the  elder 
Scripture  too?  Does  that  despised  and  rejected 
One  really  hold  in  His  hand  the  key  to  the  secret  of 
the  ages  ?  Is  the  angel  of  the  Apocalypse  in  the 
right  when  he  declares  that  "  the  testimony  of  Jesus 
is  the  spirit  of  prophecy  "?  The  answer  we  give  to 
these  cpiestions  depends  wholly  upon  our  willing- 
ness or  unwilUngness  to  concede  to  Jesus  Christ 
the  right  to  speak  on  spiritual  matters  "  as  one 
having  authority."  If  we  have  made  up  our  minds 
to  regard  the  Son  of  Mary  as  nothing  more  than  a 
heavenly-minded,  high-souled  man,  a  teacher  of 
purer  morals  than  were  generally  accepted  in  His 


THE    OXEXKSS   OF   SCRIl'TUKK.  151 

day,  a  leader  of  religious  thought  among  His  fellow- 
fountrvineu,  tliough  of  such  coniiaanding  stature 
that  llis  iiiliueuce  lias  extended  itself  to  men  of 
countries  other  tlian  His  own — if  this  he  the  rate  at 
whii-h  Ave  hold  Uiiu,  then  nothing  will  seem  to  us 
more  irrational  and  ahsurd  than  to  suppose  that 
we  are  to  look  for  supernatural  references  to  Ilim 
in  a  collection  of  old  l.)ooks  written  centuries  before 
Ilis  birth,  by  men  who  had  no  concert  of  action,  and 
who  were  manifestly  Itent  on  speaking  out  what 
they  had  to  say  to  the  people  of  their  own  times. 
But  if,  on  tlie  other  lumd,  one  has  become  persuaded 
that  such  a  view  of  the  matter  is  as  shallow  as  it 
is  intelligible  ;  if  one  has  l^ecome  persuaded  that 
Christianity  must  be  something  more  than  a  happy 
accident  to  have  accomplished  wdiat  it  has  accom- 
plished in  the  world  ;  if  one  has  become  persuaded 
that  Jesus  Christ  was  not  so  much  the  founder  of  a 
new  religion  as  lie  was  and  is  tlie  centre  and  heart 
of  all  religion  thnt  is  true,  then  it  will  not  be  diffi- 
cult, but,  rather,  very  easy  to  believe  that  for  the 
coming  of  this  Ilevealer  into  an  untaught  world 
a  careful  preparation  was  required,  and  that  for  an 
adequate  and  faithful  record  of  this  educating  pro- 
cess, provision  should  have  been  made. 

This  willingness  to  risk  every  thing  that  is  essen- 
tial to  Christianity,  the  integrity  of  its  Scriptures, 


152  THE    ONENESS    OF   SCKIPTUKE. 

the  autliority  of  its  creeds,  the  perpetuity  of  its 
very  structure,  upon  the  simple  word  of  Christ 
speaking  to  us  out  of  the  Gospels,  used  to  be  depre- 
cated by  cautious  people  as  a  too  hazardous  venture 
of  faith.  But  sooner  or  later,  "Wisdom  is  justified 
of  all  her  children."  In  a  recent  Avork  on  Systema- 
tic Theology,  which  probably  embodies  the  most 
conservative  thought  of  our  times,  it  is  significant 
to  find  these  words :  "  After  all,  Christ  is  the 
great  object  of  the  Christian's  faith.  Wc  believe 
Ilim,  and  we  believe  every  thing  else  on  His 
authority."''^ 

We  have  been  dwelling  thus  far  upon  tlie  Bible's 
unity  of  subject.  Fewer  words  will  suffice  in  treat- 
ing of  its  unity  of  authorship.  You  see  how  the 
one  conclusion  hinges  upon  and  is  necessitated  by 
the  other.  From  the  unity  of  subject,  we  can  reason 
backward  with  safety  to  the  unity  of  authorship ; 
for  when  we  have  once  satisfied  ourselves  that  "  the 
Scripture  cannot  be  broken,"  that  to  snap  its  inter- 
lacing threads  of  connection  would  be  like  cutting 
the  nerves,  tendons,  and  cartilage  that  knit  the  joints 
of  a  living  body,  we  find  it  impossible  to  account 
for  so  startling  a  fact  save  by  supposing  that  from 
the  beginning,  one  mind  planned  and  one  eye  fore- 
saw the  whole. 


*Dr.  Hodge,  "  Systematic  Tlieology  "  -vol.  i.,  p.  167. 


THE   ONENESS   OF   SCKIPTUHE.  153 

You  see  also  the  great  subsidiary  advantages  of 
tliis  method,  for  it  has  enabled  ns  to  steer  wholly 
clear  of  the  petty  entanglements  with  which  the 
(juestion  of  the  Bible's  authority  has  been  needlessly 
but  too  often  cneunibercd.     Let  a  man  pin  his  faith 
to  some  special  philosophy  of  inspiration,  and  he  is 
at  the  mercy  of  the  lirst  unfriendly  critic,  who  can 
prove  to  him  beyond  a  doubt  that  tlicre  are  errors 
in  the  chronology  of  the  Pentateuch,  or  discrepan- 
cies in  the  Gospel  narratives.     But  he  who  grounds 
liis  confidence  in  the  Bible  as  the  word  of  God  on 
the  simple  faith  that  there  is  a  God,  and  that  lie 
lias  spoken  to  us  through  Jesus  Christ,  will  stand 
in  no  dread  of  the  microscopic  fault-finder  with  his 
arithmetic  and  slate.     The  roots  of  that  man's  re- 
verence for  the  Bible  strike  down  too  deep  into  the 
soil  for  the  tree  to  be  disturbed  by  every  adverse 
wind  of  doctrine.     The  trifling  inaccuracies  charged 
against    the    Scriptures,    should    they   be   proved, 
will  no  more  shake  such  a  believer's  trust  in  their 
divine  authorship  than  the  detection  of  a  blemish 
here   and   there   in   the   stone-work  of   St.  Paul's 
Cathedral   would   convince   him  that   Sir  Christo- 
pher Wren  did  not  design  the  building. 

We  ought  as  churchmen  to  thank  God  for 
the  large  wisdom  which  guided  the  Anglican  re- 
formers in  their  treatment  of  this  subject.     They 


154  THE   ONENESS   OF   SCRIPTURE, 

were  content  to  receive  and  to  lianci  on  Holy 
Scripture  as  containing  "  all  tilings  necessary  to 
salvation."* 

It  was  reserved  for  later  and  lesser  theologians 
to  frame  those  artificial  distinctions  between  kinds 
and  degrees  of  inspiration  from  which  men's  intel- 
ligence has  recoiled. 

The  view  that  has  been  now  presented  may  be 
called  the  providential  theory  of  the  growth  and 
completion  of  the  Scriptures. 

That  it  presupposes  in  the  inquirer  antecedent 
convictions  as  a  groundwork  ought  to  be  no  argu- 
ment against  it,  for  the  subject  is  one  to  which  of 
necessity  every  student  will  bring  prepossessions  of 
some  sort.  It  would  be  hard  indeed  to  frame  a 
plea  for  the  Bible  that  would  convince  an  atheist. 
Moreover,  it  is  to  be  questioned  whether  those  who 
demand  absolute  demonstration  as  the  condition  of 
their  accepting  a  religious  faith  will  ever  reach  the 
object  of  their  search  in  this  world  of  uncertainties 
and  probabilities. 

But  if  I  were  to  choose  our  Lord's  method  of  il- 
lustrating truth  by  parables — a  mode  of  teaching  too 
much  depreciated  in  our   times,  f  although  never 

*  Article  VI. 

f  What  Mr.  Gladstone  lately  said  of  Bisliop  Butler,  in  con- 
nection with  his  doctrine   of  probable  evidence,  might  with 


THE   OXEXESS   OF  SCKIPTL'KE.  155 

Avcrc  the  aids  to  it  more  abundant — were  I  seek- 
ing to  enforce  my  thought  l)y  an  analogy,  I  would 
ask  you  to  consider  so  common  an  object  as  a  piece 
of  branching  coral.  Here  it  is  in  your  hands.  It 
lias  been  broken  off  and  brought  home  by  some 
sailor  from  the  Pacilic.  Look  at  it ;  observe  the 
curious  and  symmetrical  arrangement  of  its  jiarts. 
It  is  not  a  clumsy,  ill-shaped  thing  at  all.  You  get 
from  it  the  same  impression  of  beauty  of  form  that 
the  limbs  of  a  tree,  or  a  stag's  antlers,  or  a  group  of 
rock  crystals  convey.  But  consider  by  what  sort 
of  a  process  of  growth  this  marvelous  result  lias 
been  attained.  In  reality,  there  is  a  wide  difference 
betM-een  this  and  the  branches  of  the  tree  or  the 
antlers  of  the  stag.  They  grow  by  a  continuous 
process  and  under  the  impulse  of  a  single  law  of 
life.*  But  how  did  this  spray  of  coral  come  to  be 
what  it  is  ?  Ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  and 
thousands  of  thousands  of  little  insects  lived  and 
died  there,  each  in  its  separate  and  appointed  place, 
each  heedless  of  every  thing  save  the  cool  sea-water 
moving  in  and  out,  and  yet  there  was  not  one  of 
them  which  did  not  serve  a  far-off  purpose. 


equal  truth  be  said  of  liim  as  tlie  great  advocate  of  analogical 
reasoning  in  tlieology  :  "  Oh  !  that  this  age  knew  the  treasure 
it  possesses  in  him  and  neglects  !'  (Letter  to  Mr.  James 
Knowles,  Nov.  9,  1873.) 


156  THE   ONENESS   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

All  the  while  a  divine  law  of  unity  was  govern- 
ing and  using  for  its  own  ends  the  lower  law  of  in- 
dividual life,  and  making  each  tiny  polyp  minister, 
without  knowing  it,  to  the  perfection  of  the  last 
result.  And  so  in  this  matter  of  the  unity  of  the 
Scrij^tures,  the  many  writers  were  but  the  under- 
workmen,  carrying  out  with  more  or  less  of  conscious 
co-operation  the  purpose  of  the  great  Designer. 
Give  all  the  credit  to  the  coral  insects  they  deserve. 
They  did  their  patient  work,  and  did  it  well ;  but 
not  to  them  does  the  meed  of  authorship  belong. 
That  rests  with  God.  He  planned,  He  guided.  He 
made  perfect. 

To  prove  to  you,  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt, 
the  unity  of  the  Bible,  I  have  acknowledged  to  be 
impossible.  But  let  me  add  that  I  did  not  under- 
take this  task.  My  Avhole  ambition  and  ain\  to- 
night has  been  to  show  how  every  man  must  prove 
it  for  himself.  I  do  not  believe  that  any  thought- 
ful person  whose  doubts  have  been  once  awakened 
will  ever  acknowledge  that  the  Scripture  can  not  be 
broken,  unless  he  has  first  become  persuaded  that  the 
claim  of  Jesus  Christ  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world 
is  true.  I  do  believe  that  when  a  man  has  hon- 
estly and  from  the  heart  confessed  this  faith,  it  is 
then  easy  for  him  to  see  how  the  various  parts  of 
Scripture  group  themselves  about  one  common  cen- 


THE   ONENESS   OF   SCRIPTUllE.  157 

tre.  Such,  a  believer  will  not  be  content  with 
merely  groping  about  tlie  pages  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment to  see  if  here  or  there  he  can  pick  np  some 
sentence  that  may  be  construed  into  a  prediction 
of  the  Messiah ;  rather  he  will  be  led  to  see  how  the 
whole  experience  of  the  people  of  God,  from  be- 
ginning to  end,  their  bondage,  their  exodus,  their 
wilderness  life,  their  ritual  worship,  their  strug- 
gles, their  dissensions,  their  captivities,  all  had  a 
part  in  the  grand  work  of  preparation  by  which 
God  was  drawing  on  "  the  fullness  of  time."  But 
to  see  all  this  is  to  discern  that  the  Bible  has  unity 
of  subject,  and  to  discern  the  Bible's  unity  of  sub- 
ject is  to  concede  its  unity  of  authorship ;  for  it  can- 
not be  by  a  coincidence  that  such  a  multitude  of 
voices  join  in  one  harmonious  song ;  there  must  be 
a  controlling  voice  behind  on  which  they  lean. 

Again,  I  remind  you  of  the  crucial  question, 
«  Whom  say  ye  that  I  am  ? " 

If  we  rei)ly  with  that  disciple  whose  confession 
won  for  him  the  proud  title  of  the  Rock,  "  Thou 
art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,"  then 
nothing  will  be  easier  that  to  accept  the  Bible  as 
the  biography  of  tliis  God-man,  the  true  hero  of 
earth's  story.  But  if  to  that  solemn  question  we 
make  answer  thus,  "  We  know  thee  not  who 
thou  art,  uor  do  we  greatly  care  to  know,"  then 


158  THE   ONENESS   OF   SCRIPTURE. 

nothing  will  be  more  natnral  than  to  see  in  the 
Bible  only  the  relics  of  a  religion  that  has  spent  its 
force  and  is  drawing  to  its  death,  a  praiseworthy 
but  obsolete  effort  of  the  oriental  mind  to  tind  its 
God.  Seeing  then  what  tremendous  issues  hang 
upon  the  question,  "  What  think  ye  of  Christ  V  shall 
any  one  venture  to  treat  it  as  a  matter  of  no  conse- 
quence? ]^ay,  my  deUr  friends,  if  that  question 
be  still  lying  nnsettled  in  your  mind,  grapple  it, 
wrestle  with  it,  pray  over  it,  until,  by  God's  grace, 
you  find  an  answer,  and  an  answer  by  which  you 
are  willing  to  abide.  So  shall  you  solve  not  only 
this  problem  of  the  Bible's  unity,  but  many  another 
problem  also  ;  and  depend  upon  it,  the  solution  thus 
reached  through  the  pathway  of  a  heart-experience 
will  be  worth  more  to  you  than  any  you  could  pos- 
sibly find  made  ready  to  your  hand. 


ISToTE, — Since  this  sermon  was  preached,  I  have 
seen  for  the  first  time  the  following  paragraph  at 
the  close  of  Canon  "Westcott's  JSlMe  in  the 
Church.^  I  append  it  here  partly  for  the  sake  of 
bringing  it  under  the  eye  of  readers  who  might  not 
otherwise  fall  in  with  it,  and  partly  because  of  the 
pleasure  it  has  given  me  to  iind  my  own  convic- 

*  The  Bible  in  the  Church,  p.  296. 


THE    ONENESS   OF   SCKIPTUliE.  159 

tions,  as  expressed  in  the  sermon,  coincident  \vitli 
those  of  a  man  "whose  judgment  and  authority  in 
such  a  question  are  worth  vastly  more  than  my  own: 
"  In  a  word,  the  liistory  of  the  Bible  is  an  epi- 
tome of  the  history  of  the  Church.  Both  came  to 
their  full  form,  slowly,  silently,  surely,  hy  the  com- 
bination of  manifold  elements.  Both  grew  by  the 
action  of  an  informing  power,  and  were  not  con- 
structed from  without  by  any  foreign  force.  Both 
include  treasures  new  and  old,  of  which  now  this, 
now  that  is  needed  for  the  instruction  of  men. 
Both  liave  been  overlaid  by  superstitious  additions, 
both  have  been  injured  by  an  idolatrous  reverence ; 
but  in  both  there  is  a  life  which  makes  itself  felt, 
and  refuses  to  be  bound  in  one  shape.  The  Bible, 
no  less  than  the  Church,  is  Holy,  Catholic,  and 
Apostolic  :  Holy,  for  they  who  wrote  it  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit ;  Catholic,  for  it  em- 
braces in  essence  every  type  of  Christian  truth 
which  has  gained  entrance  among  men ;  Apostolic, 
for  its  limits  are  not  extended  beyond  that  iirst  gene- 
ration to  which  was  committed  the  charge  of  preach- 
ing the  Gospel  in  the  fullness  of  its  original  power." 


IMMORTALITY. 


KIGHT  REV.  THOMAS  MARCH  CLARK,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

BlSUOr    OV    liUOUE    ISLAND. 


IMMOKTALITY. 


This  mortiU  must  i>ut  on  iiniuortality. — 1  CoK.  l.j  :  53. 

Ik  it  is  difficult  for  a  man  to  believe  in  lii.s  own  per- 
sonal innnortality,  it  is  equally  so  to  conceive  of  a 
final  cessation  of  heiui;-.     The  idea  of  absolute  an- 
nihilation is  not  only  abhorrent  to  the  feelings,  but 
it  is  also  contradictory  to  our  instincts  and  intui- 
tions.    And  if  all  life  is  bounded  by  a  span,  v>'c  caii 
not  help  asking,  how  did  this  notion  of  an  immor- 
tal existence  ever  come  to  us  ?     If  it  is  a  mere  de- 
lusion, it  is  the  only  lie  that  has  been  incoi*i)orated 
into  the  texture  of  our  humanity.     Every  other  in- 
stinct and  intuition  has  something  objective  which 
corresponds   to   it.      The   body   iinds   food   some- 
where for  the  gratification  of  all  its  appetites ;  the 
ear  Avas  made  for  hearing,  and  the  air  is  full  of  mu- 
sic ;  the  eye  was  made  to  see,  and  form  and  color 
meet  it  at  every  glance  ;  the  heart  was  made,  to  feel, 
and  it  is  continually  touched  by  experiences,  which 
fill  it  with  sorrow  or  with  joy ;  the  brain  was  made 
to  be  the  instrument  of  thought,  and  the  material 


16  J:  IMMORTALITY. 

upon  which  it  exercises  itself  is  as  varied  as  it  is 
abundant ;  the  S23irit  of  man  seems  to  have  been 
made  for  immortality  ;  it  craves  after  an  unending 
existence ;  and  if  it  could  be  proved  beyond  a  doubt 
that  it  must  perish  witli  the  destruction  of  the  tab- 
ernacle wliich  it  inhabits,  there  ■would  go  up  from 
every  tribe  and  nation  one  miiversal  burst  of  exe- 
cration against  the  ]jeing  who  created  the  soul. 

"  But,"  we  are  told,  "■  the  soul  was  never  created 
at  all — it  is  only  the  development  of  one  of  the 
higher  species  of  force,  and  the  result  of  a  peculiar 
organization.  Apart  from  that  ])hysical  organiza- 
tion, we  can  not  conceive  of  man's  existence ;  and 
as  the  spiritual  part  of  our  being  originates  with  the 
physical,  and  is  subject  to  all  its  contingencies,  so 
the  actual  dissolution  of  the  one  must  be  accom- 
panied with  the  destruction  of  the  other." 

But  then  we  lind  in  man  this  essential  difference 
which  distinguishes  him  from  all  otlier  organized 
beings — there  is  in  hhn  a  free,  automatic,  intelli- 
gent power,  by  which  he  can  control  his  own  move- 
ments and  regulate  his  own  development.  In  all 
other  forms  of  earthly  being,  the  organism  is  su- 
preme ;  but  man's  noblest  triumphs  are  achieved  in 
defiance  of  his  physical  organization.  And  when 
all  his  nerves  are  tingling  with  fiery  passion,  and  his 
heart  throbbing  with  strong  desire,  and  his  blood 


DIMORTALITV.  165 

com-sing  ^vitll  liglitiiiiig  speed  tlirougli  liis  veins, 
and  his  acliing  brain  impelling  hiin  to  yield,  and  in 
the  majesty  of  his  manhood  ho  rises  np,  and  says, 
''I  will  not  yield!"  then  he  comes  to  the  con- 
sciousness of  his  immortality,  for  he  feels  that 
there  is  something  in  him  which  can  defy  and  sub- 
due the  body,  and  is  not  subject  to  all  the  miserable 
contingencies  by  which  it  is  controlled. 

"  That  may  sound  somewhat  grand,"  is  the  reply ; 
''  l)ut  after  all,  this  notion  of  immortality  must  be  a 
delusion,  because  we  can  form  no  actnat  conception 
of  the  fnture  life  ;  a  disembodied  so\d,as  it  is  some- 
times called,  is  a  simple  nonentity.  It  has  no  f  nnc- 
tions,  no  capacities,  no  organs,  and  of  course  no  lo- 
cality. Men  talk  as  if  they  had  some  idea  of  a  spir- 
itual existence,  but  they  have  no  definite  thoughts 
about  the  matter.  The  forms  and  analogies  of  the 
natural  world  are  merely  transferred  to  a  domain 
where  they  cease  to  have  any  significance." 

This  is  not  an  argument,  but  only  an  appeal  to 
the  imagination.  What  conception  has  an  infant  of 
the  experiences  that  arc  awaiting  him  in  his  matu- 
rity? It  might  be  worse  than  useless  for  us  to 
know  any  thing  very  definite  as  to  the  outward 
conditions  of  our  future  life,  and  I  think  it  is  very 
doubtful  whether  there  are  any  terms  in  the  lan- 
guage that  we  now  use  capable  of  conveying  to  the 


166  IMMORTALITY. 

mind  a  distinct  idea  of  tliose  conditions.  Even  after 
wo  liave  entered  the  next  stage  of  being,  it  is  veiy 
probable  that  we  shall  reqnire  the  same  gradual 
training  and  experience,  in  order  to  comprehend  the 
new  modes  of  existence  Avhich  await  ns  there,  that 
are  needed  in  the  process  of  our  education  here. 
When  the  boundary  line  has  been  passed,  and  we 
find  ourselves  standing  in  the  presence  of  eternal 
realities,  the  veil  may  be  lifted  very  slowly,  and  the 
glories  of  our  inunortality  revealed  to  us,  only  as 
we  have  strength  of  vision  to  endure  their  bright- 
ness. 

"  But,"  adds  the  objector,  "  if  man  is  immortal, 
would  there  not  have  been  such  palpable,  unrpies- 
tionable  proof  of  the  fact,  that  ]io  possible  room 
would  have  been  left  for  a  doubt  'i  Why  is  it  that 
so  many  who  are  really  anxious  to  believe,  and  even 
crave  after  an  immortality,  are  left  in  such  wretched 
suspense,  and  lind  nothing  to  satisfy  them  ?  If  there 
is  another  world,  where  Ave  arc  to  dwell  hereafter, 
and  Avherc  those  are  now  living  avIio  once  went  in 
and  out  with  us  over  the  same  threshold,  why  docs 
it  seem  so  far  off,  so  imjmlpable,  so  unreal  ?" 

There  may  be  good  reasons  for  keeping  the  future 
life,  to  a  certain  degree,  remote  from  us  and  inac- 
cessible, inasmuch  as  this  removes  the  temptation 
that  might  otherwise  beset  us  to  busy  ourselves  v\'itli 


IMMORTALITY.  167 

cnrious  speculations  about  the  spiritual  world,  in- 
stead of  giving  our  minas  to  the  faithful  discharge 
of  the  duties  that  pertain  to  our  present  life.  Our 
work  is  here,  our  responsibilities  all  centre  here,  and 
the  best  preparation  we  can  make  for  our  future  life 
is  to  be  had  in  doing  the  work  well  which  God  as- 
signs to  us  here  on  earth.  And  no  one  who  is  not 
thus  fitting  himself  for  ininiprtality,  deserves  or  can 
expect  to  be  delivered  from  anxiety  and  doubt. 
Gloom  and  fear  must  liaunt  the  man  who  always 
dwells  amid  the  clouds  and  mists  of  the  valley, 
breathing  the  thick,  contaminated  atmosphere  of 
earth  ;  but  only  let  him  climb  to  the  mountain-top, 
where  the  heavens  arc  clear,  and  the  air  is  pure, 
then  all  his  anxieties  and  doubts  will  vanish.  He 
will  see  the  bright  towers  of  the  Xew  Jerusalem, 
and  hear  the  echo  of  its  silver  bells.  He  who  lives 
by  faith  in  the  Son  of  God,  and  obeys  His  holy  law, 
can  not  doubt  that  his  Saviour  will  admit  him  into 
an  everlasting  habitation,  when  his  work  here  is 
finished. 

"  This  is  life  eternal — to  know  Thee,  the  only 
true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ,  whom  Thou  hast  sent." 
"  Faith  is  the  substance,''  the  basis,  "  of  things 
hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen."  It  is 
evidence,  because,  with  the  believer,  the  eternal  life 


1(33  IMMORTALITY. 

lias  already  Legnn.     lie  enters  njjon  liis  immortal- 
ity when  lie  becomes  identified  Avith  Christ. 

"  But,"  it  is  again  asked,  "  if  the  proof  of  an  eter- 
nal life  rests  primarily  npon  divine  revelation,  how 
are  we  to  account  for  the  fact  that,  in  the  earlier 
dispensations,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  case  of  the 
Mosaic  economy,  there  is  no  distinct  and  definite 
doctrine  of  immortality  disclosed  to  man  ?  Why 
was  not  this  fact  incorporated  into  the  law,  as  it 
was  then  revealed  ?" 

In  the  first  jjlacc,  that  was  a  civil  code,  intended 
for  the  regulation  of  national  as  well  as  of  private 
affairs,  and  there  would  have  been  an  obvious  im- 
propriety in  appealing  to  future  rewards  and  pun- 
ishments as  the  sanction  of  a  civil  law. 

Again,  this  was  not  needed.  The  doctrine  of  a 
future  life  had  never  been  questioned,  and  was  an 
element  in  the  popular  traditional  belief.  The  pa- 
triarchs supposed  themselves  to  have  occasional  in- 
tercourse with  spiritual  beings  and  angelic  inhabi- 
tants of  other  worlds,  and  believed  that,  when  they 
died,  they  would  rejoin  those  who  had  gone  before 
them. 

There  was  another  reason  for  the  silence  of  Moses 
on  this  subject,  growing  out  of  the  fact  that  the 
doctrine  of  immortality  among  the  Egyptians  had  as- 
sumed such  prominence  that  it  interfered  with  the 


IMMORTALITY.  IGO 

"welfare  and  progress  of  society,  made  men  indiffer- 
ent to  the  discharge  of  their  secuhir  duties,  Avhile  it 
exerted  no  sahitary  influence  upon  their  character. 
The  building  of  costly  tonibs  absorbed  the  ■wealth 
that  might  have  been  devoted  to  the  service  of 
the  living,  and  tlie  material  which  should  have  been 
used  to  clothe  the  poor  was  expended  in  wrap- 
pings for  the  nmmmied  dead.  AVith  them,  the  im- 
mortal life  was  regarded  only  as  a  continuation  of 
earthly  enjoyments  and  pursuits ;  and  when,  at 
their  feasts,  they  placed  a  skeleton  at  the  table,  it  was 
not  as  a  solemn  reminder  of  the  A'anity  of  all  earth- 
ly things,  but  as  a  guest  from  the  other  world,  with 
whom  they  expected  to  sit  down  hereafter  to  a  more 
sumptuous  repast.  The  doctrine  of  immortality 
with  which  the  Israelites  had  become  familiar  in 
Egj-pt  possessed  no  high  moral  or  religious  ele- 
ment, and  at  tlie  time  of  the  exodus  they  were 
probably  not  in  a  condition  to  accept  any  loftier 
view. 

Passing  on  to  another  form  of  objection,  our  op- 
ponent says,  "  If  you  base  the  immortality  of  man 
upon  the  teachings  of  the  Xcw  Testament,  then  it 
becomes  identified  with  a  doctrine  of  resurrection, 
which  is  equivalent  to  the  reconstruction  of  our 
present  bodies  at  some  future  period — the  recom- 
pounding  of  their  existing  elementary  atoms,  after 


170  IMMORTALITY. 

tliej  liavc  l)cen  blown  liitlier  and  thither  by  the 
winds,  and  been  resolved  into  their  primitive  gases, 
entering  in  this  form  into  the  composition  of  vari- 
ons  kinds  of  vegetable  life,  perhaps  into  the  sub- 
stance of  a  thousand  different  human  bodies." 

This  is  not  the  Christian  idea  of  the  resurrection, 
and  St.  Paul  calls  the  man  a  fool  who  holds  such  a 
doctrine  as  that.  In  reply  to  those  who  ask,  "  With 
what  body  do  they  come  ?"  he  says  expressly, 
"  Thou  sowest  not  that  body  that  sliall  be" — that 
is,  it  is  not  the  organic  structure  which  is  laid  in 
the  earth  that  appears  again.  But  ho  always  teach- 
es that  the  soul  is  to  have  some  sort  of  investiture 
in  the  spiritual  world  ;  it  is  "  not  to  be  unclothed." 
We  know  nothing  as  to  the  specific  nature  of 
what  he  calls  "  the  spiritual  body,"  but  then  we 
know  just  as  little  of  the  actual  substance  of  which 
the  natural  or  animal  body  is  composed.  Matter 
is  revealed  to  us  by  its  outward  properties,  and 
spirit  by  its  manifestations,  so  that  we  apprehend 
the  existence  of  both  by  the  same  process.  That 
the  spiritual  body  is  somewhere  and  somehow  en- 
wrapped within  the  folds  of  the  material  form,  as 
the  oak  is  latent  in  the  acorn,  and  will  hereafter 
rise  out  of — which  is  what  the  word  resurrection 
means — the  natural  body,  is  scriptural  and  rational. 

That  there  will  also  be  an  analo2:v  between  the 


IMMOKTALiry.  171 

natural  and  the  spiritual  body,  as  M'ell  as  some  sort 
of  identity  in  the  two  forms  of  existence,  I  do  not 
doubt,  (lod  "•  gives  to  every  seed  liis  own  body." 
While  the  substance,  or  under-lying  essence,  of  the 
one  must  be  uidike  that  of  the  other,  there  may 
still  be  a  resemblance  in  their  a])pearancc,  and,  to 
some  extent,  in  their  functions  ;  not  an  actual  iden- 
tity, for,  in  its  glorified  state,  all  defects  and  impur- 
ities must  be  removed:  "that  Avhich  is  sown  in 
weakness  will  be  raised  in  ])ower,"  the  blinded  eye 
opened  to  discern  all  the  beauties  of  the  celestial 
firmament,  the  deafened  ear  unstopped  to  hear  the 
melody  of  angelic  anthems,  the  enfeebled  arm  made 
strong,  and  the  crippled  feet  swift  and  iirm. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  whenever  spiritual  be- 
ings arc  spoken  of  in  Scripture  as  revealing  them- 
selves to  the  sight,  they  appear  in  bodily  forms,  and 
are  s])okcn  of  indiscriminately  as  angels  and  men. 
The  Saviour  ascended  into  the  heavens  in  a  human 
form  Avhich  the  Articles  of  the  Church  teach  us  lie 
still  retains. 

!  "  When  you  speak  of  form,^^  continues  our  sci- 
entific skeptic,  "  if  your  words  have  any  real  mean- 
ing, the  term  must  be  intended  to  signify  some- 
thing which  is  caj^able  of  being  bounded  in  space, 
and  which,  therefore,  must  have  an  outline  or  figure ; 
and  if  this  is  in  any  sense  a  hochjs  it  must  be  com- 


172  IMMORTALITY. 

j)eteTit  to  exercise  certain  functions,  such  as  changing 
its  place,  receiving  and  imparting  knowledge,  and 
doing  Avliatever  may  be  demanded  Ijv  the  exigen- 
cies of  its  condition," 

We  are  perfectly  willing  to  accept  this  statement, 
and  if  yon  say  that  all  this  reqnires  tlie  existence  of 
some  sort  of  physical  organization,  that  there  can 
be  no  action  Avithont  limbs,  and  no  sight  withont 
an  eye,  and  no  comnmnication  of  thonght  withont  a 
tongne,  and  inasmnch  as  snch  organs  are  incompati- 
ble with  the  idea  of  spiritual  being,  therefore  it  is 
nnscientific  to  believe  in  any  such  being — allow 
me  to  ask  one  or  two  questions. 

If,  a  hundred  years  ago,  some  wild  visionary  had 
said  that  the  time  would  soon  come  when,  in  look- 
ing with  a  magnifier  at  what  appears  to  the  eye  as  a 
little  dot  of  the  pen,  yon  would  be  able  to  read  in 
that  dark  speck  every  word  of  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
distinctly  engraved,  or  see  there  a  perfect  copy  of 
your  friend's  face  ;  and  then  shonld  be  further  told 
that  this  wonderful  delineation  had  been  wu'ought 
without  the  nse  of  any  instrument  whatever,  even 
without  the  touch  of  a  human  hand — would  not  such 
men  as  yon  have  been  almost  certain  to  pronounce 
such  a  prediction  imscientific,  and  therefore  ab- 
snrd  ?  Suppose  he  had  then  gone  on  to  say  that, 
at  the  same  period,  merchants  in  Kew-York  would 


IMMORTALITY.  173 

liold  coniniunicatiun  witli  tlieir  correspondents  in 
London  almost  as  readily  as  if  they  were  sitting  in 
the  same  connting-rooni,  I  imagine  tliat  the  skeptic 
Avonld  insist  npon  knowing  something  of  the  pro- 
cess by  Avliich  such  a  result  Avas  to  be  obtained,  be- 
fore he  would  consent  to  listen  patiently  to  so  pre- 
posterous a  statement. 

Suppose  then,  for  his  enlightenment  and  satis- 
faction, lie  should  be  told  that  the  men  of  dif- 
ferent continents  conversed  together  by  sending 
connnunication^  along  the  bed  of  the  ocean,  how 
far  would  this  tend  to  reduce  his  skepticism  ?  Sup- 
pose, then,  he  should  be  further  informed  that  the 
principle  involved  in  this  mode  of  intercourse  con- 
sisted in  producing  a  sinniltaneous  vibration  on  the 
coast  of  America  and  the  coast  of  Europe,  this  vibra- 
tion shaping  itself  into  words  and  sentences;  would 
this  explanation  satisfy  him  any  better  ?  And  if, 
after  all  this,  he  should  be  told  that  the  agent  or 
power  by  means  of  which  this  would  be  done  is 
something  which  the  eye  of  man  never  saw — some- 
thing which  could  never  be  Aveighed  in  the  most  de- 
licate scales,  something  so  nearly  analogous  to  spirit 
that  the  same  terms  by  which  one  is  described  are 
equally  applicable  to  the  other  ;  if  he  had  never  be- 
lieved in  the  existence  of  spirit  before,  I  do  not 


174  IMMORTALITY. 

think  tliat  sucli  a  story  as  this  "would  be  likely  to 
convert  liini. 

I  liave  cited  these  illustrations  to  show  that  it  is 
absurd  and  iniscientilic  to  deny  the  existence  of 
spiritual  beings,  endowed  with  spiritual  bodies,  and 
•  capable  of  exercising  all  the  functions  which  per- 
tain to  the  liighest  condition  of  being,  merely  on 
the  ground  that  Ave  do  not  know  how  they  are  con- 
stituted, and  by  what  modes  they  act.  When  you 
can  tell  by  what  process  mind  acts  upon  body,  and 
body  upon  mind,  in  our  present  form  of  exist- 
ence— how  it  is  that  a  thought  can  gave  an  impulse 
to  the  flow  of  the  blood,  and  the  stagnation  of  the 
blood  arrest  the  action  of  thought,  then  you  may 
deny,  with  some  better  show  of  reason,  the  fact  of 
your  own  immortality,  because  you  are  not  able  to 
comprehend  the  mysteries  of  that  immortality. 

"But,"  adds  the  objector,  "this  is  not  the  only 
ground  upon  which  I  am  led  to  question  what  I  un- 
derstand to  be  the  Christian  doctrine  of  a  future 
life.  There  arc  certain  moral  reasons  which  have 
more  weight  in  inducing  my  skepticism  than  any 
which  are  derived  from  science.  Death,  as  a  phy- 
sical process,  is  merely  the  return  of  the  elements 
which  have  been  drawii  from  the  atmosphere  and 
the  earth,  in  order  to  form  the  fnime-work  of  a 
body,  to  their  original  condition.     Xow,  if  this  de- 


IMMOr.TALITY.  1*^^ 


stnu-tion  of  the  material  l.uikling  liberates  tlic  spir- 
itual l>eini,^  the  man,  Avho  uccupicMl  it,  ami  transfers 
lu,u  to  a  uew  plane  of  existence,  it  may  be  presumed 
that  his  spiritual  or  moral  identity  is  n..t  substanti- 
.^ly  aftec-ted   bv  the   c-hange  ;    otherwise,  it   is  nut 
the  same  man  ^vho  moves  away  fnnu  the  old  habi- 
tation that  once  lived  there.     And  yet  I  am  told 
that  instantly  upon  their  entering  into  the  spiritual 
state  all  persons  are  at  once  transformed,  cither  into 
.potless  an-els,  ineapaldc  of  an  error  or  a  fault,  or 
into  infernal  demons,  incapable  of  a  virtue,  or  even 
of  that  exercise  of  AviU  npon  which  virtue  depends. 
Xow,  wherever  we  draw  the  line  which  may  be 
considered  as  separating  the  bad  from  the  good  in 
this  world,  on  the  border  territory  we  find  many  - 
persons  whose  position  it  is  difficult  to  deterinme, 
and  there   is  hardly  an  appreciable  difference  be- 
tween the  lowest  man  on  one  side  and  the  highest 
on  the  other ;  and  yet  I  am  told  that  death  at  once 
remits  all  who  stand  on  one  side  to  a  state  of  per- 
fect happiness  and  holiness,  and  all  others  to  the  re- 
gions of  irremediable  woe.     The  difficulty  in  recon- 
ciling this  doctrine  with  any  intelligible  idea  of  the 
justice  of  God,"  continues  our  skeptical  objector, 
"is  not  relieved  by  removing  the  matter  of  salva- 
tion from  amoral  ground,  and  making  it  depend 
npon  the  reception  of  a  rite,  or  the  exercise  of  a 


176  IMMORTALITY. 

particular  faith,  because  tliis  seems  to  make  the  line 
of  division  altogetlier  arbitrary,  and  takes  away  tlie 
idea  of  recompense  and  retribution,  as  based  upon 
personal  character.  Still  further,  according  to  the 
popular  theology,  tliis  world  is  the  only  place  of 
probation,  and  the  eternal  destiny  of  every  human 
being  is  determined  at  the  moment  of  his  death  ; 
but  there  arc  millions  upon  millions  passing  away 
every  year,  who  have  had  no  opportunities  of  moral 
discipline,  and  no  enlightenment  as  it  respects  the 
true  character  of  God,  and  their  duties  to  Him. 
Now,  dreadful  as  is  the  thought  of  annihilation,  it 
is  harder  still  to  believe  in  an  immortality  which 
carries  with  it  such  doctrines  as  these." 

"\Ve  have  tried  to  give  the  ol)jector  fair  play,  and 
to  state  his  case  precisely  as  we  supple  he  would 
put  it ;  for,  in  these  days,  it  is  not  worth  while  to 
blink  the  real  difhculties  which  trouble  even  good 
people's  minds. 

There  are  three  ways  in  which  such  objections 
as  those  which  have  just  been  stated  may  be  dis- 
posed of.  The  first  is  by  resolving  the  whole  mat- 
ter of  probation  and  our  final  destiny  into  a  sover- 
eign decree  of  the  Almighty,  and  denying  man  the 
competency  to  form  an  intelligible  judgment  as  to 
what  constitutes  justice  in  the  dealings  of  God  with 
man.     The  reasous  for  decliniug  to  accept  this  so- 


IMMORTALITY.  177 

lution  of  tlic  difficulty  arc  so  inanifcst  that  I 
need  only  to  allude  to  tlicni.  Ituiukcs  religion  only 
iin  arbitrary  matter,  leaves  no  room  for  the  exer- 
cise of  personal  responsibility,  and  destroys  all  those 
fundamental  conceptions  of  justice  which  lie  at  the 
foundation  of  character  and  morality.  I  do  not  say 
that  this  has  ahvays  been  the  practical  result ;  for 
many  of  the  best  men  that  ever  lived  held  and  still 
hold  this  theological  opinion  ;  because  there  arc 
other  elements  in  their  creed  ■which  qualify,  if  they 
do  not  destroy,  the  falsities  which  it  contains. 

The  second  mode  of  meeting  the  difficulty  is  by 
endeavoring  to  reconcile  the  elements  which  it  em- 
bodies with  our  natural  sense  of  justice.  I  con- 
fess that  I  am  not  competent  to  do  this,  and 
therefore  I  am  obliged  to  seek  for  some  other  solu- 
tion. And  the  only  way  in  which  relief  can  be  ob- 
tained is  by  denying  that  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
innnortality  is  embarrassed  by  any  such  dogmas  as 
have  been  urged  to  its  discredit.  If  there  is  any 
one  principle  fundamental  in  religion,  as  well  as  in 
morals,  it  is  that  our  conception  of  justice,  as  ajv 
plied  to  God's  dealings  with  man,  must  be  the  same 
as  that  which  regulates  our  dealings  with  each 
other  ;  otherwise,  we  really  have  no  idea  of  justice 
whatever.  If  there  is  any  one  principle  fundamen- 
tal in  the  Christian  religion,  it  is  that  destiny  must 


178  IMMORTALITY. 

be  according  to  character.  All  the  teachings  of 
Christ,  and  of  His  disciples,  are  based  npon  this. 
Men  are  indeed  called  upon  to  believe,  in  order  to 
be  saved  ;  but  the  definition  of  saving  faith  is  that 
"  which  works  by  love,  purifying  the  heart."  Its 
value  is  in  its  moral  quality,  not  in  any  thing  arbi- 
trary or  artificial.  And  while  the  doctrine  of  fu- 
ture reward  and  punishment  is  thoroughly  inter- 
woven with  that  of  immortality,  it  is  also  certain 
that  God  Avill  never  inflict  upon  any  creature  that 
he  has  made,  a  worse  doom  than  he  deserves.  This 
of  course  involves  the  principle  that  every  individ- 
ual must  take  his  place  in  the  next  stage  of  being, 
not  in  accordance  with  any  arbitrary  classification, 
but  in  exact  conformity  to  his  individual  deserts. 
Ko  moral  agent,  who  has  lived  as  we  have  all 
lived,  can  ever  claim  a  reward  on  the  ground  of  his 
personal  merit ;  for  the  balance  of  demerit  turns 
against  us  all,  and  therefore  we  must  all  throw  our- 
selves in  faith  upon  the  mercy  of  God  in  Jesus 
Christ ;  and  still  it  is  true  that  destiny  will  be  ap- 
portioned in  strict  accordance  with  personal  charac- 
ter. There  can  l)e  no  world  in  which  all  muII  stand 
on  the  same  level ;  and,  in  the  general  apportion- 
ment of  human  destiny,  and  in  determining  the 
question  of  onr  salvation,  God  is  to  draw  the  line 
between  the  righteous  and  the  wicked,  and    not 


IMMORTALITY.  179 

man  ;  and  probably  lie  ^vill  do  tliis  upon  principles 
very  nulike  tliosc  "wliieli  Mould  determine  our  judg- 
ments. 

The  only  difficulty  Avliich  rcmain^^  unconsidered 
in  the  present  connection  is  that  M-hich  relates  to 
the  linal  condition  of  those  vast  multitudes,  both  in 
Christian  and  in  lieathen  lands,  who  have  had  no 
opportunities  of  real  moral  discipline  here  on 
earth,  and  therefore  no  actual  probation.  As  this 
is  not  a  practical  question,  the  Scrijjtures  throw 
but  little  light  upon  it,  simply  affirming  that 
those  who  have  not  been  enlightened  bv  rev^elation 
will  be  judged  by  the  law  written  on  their  hearts, 
or  in  accordance  with  the  light  which  nature  fur- 
nishes. I  will  not  insult  the  intelligence  of  this 
congregation  by  citing  the  familiar  2)assage  from  the 
book  of  Ecclesiastes,  '•'  In  the  place  where  the  tree 
falleth,  there  it  shall  be,"  in  the  present  connec- 
tion. It  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  subject,  and  if 
it  had,  standing  where  it  does,  it  would  carry  no 
authority  ;  for  other  passages  might  be  quoted  from 
the  same  writer,  which,  separated  from  tlieir  con- 
nection, and  used  as  mere  proof-texts,  would  be 
made  to  teach  the  doctrine  of  man's  annihilation. 
It  is  enough  for  us  to  know  that  "  the  Judge  of  all 
the  earth  will  do  right,"  and  we  may  safely  and 
contideutly  leave  the  adjustment  of  matters,  with 


180  IMMORTALITY. 

which  we  have  no  practical  concern,  to  be  disposed 
of  by  Ilim. 

There  is  one  thing  further  whicli  stands  in  the 
way  of  a  belief  in  our  immortality,  or  at  any  rate 
makes  belief  so  shadowy  and  unsatisfactory  that  it 
takes  ho  positive  hold  upon  the  popuhir  mind,  and 
excites  but  little  real  interest.  And  here,  again, 
I  would  prefer  that  the  objector  should  state  his 
own  case. 

"  I  find  myself,"  he  says,  "  endowed  with  a  great 
A'ariety  of  tastes  and  capacities.  If  there  is  a  God, 
and  I  am  made  in  His  image,  all  those  gifts  must 
have  come  from  Ilim,  and  therefore  they  are  the  tran- 
script and  reflection  of  corresponding  qualities  per- 
taining to  His  own  being.  I  love  music  and  art ;  I 
And  my  liappiness  in  exploring  the  wonders  of  sci- 
ence ;  I  delight  in  genial  society,  and  tlic  brisk  flow 
of  elevated  humor  ;  I  like  to  study  nien  in  the  his- 
tories of  the  past,  as  well  as  in  the  conduct  of  the 
day.  At  times,  I  find  myself  absorbed  in  the  great 
mysteries  of  ]>hilosophy,  in  trying  to  open  the  secret 
chambers  of  thought ;  and  while  I  acknowledge  that 
a  sound  moral  nature  and  a  profound  sentiment  of 
reverence  are  essential  to  a  well-balanced  character, 
I  do  not  think  that  a  man  can  fill  up  the  full  mea- 
sure of  his  being  if  he  is  notliing  more  than  what  is 
ordinarily  understood  to  be  a  pious  person.     And 


IMMORTALITY.  181 

any  condition  of  existence  would  therefore  seem  to 
me  imperfect  and  unsatisfactory,  in  -which  all  the 
nobler  elements  of  my  nature  did  7iot  iind  room  for 
development  and  expansion. 

"  But,  in  the  view  that  is  ordinarily  presented  of 
the  future  world,  I  lind  no  recognition  of  any  such 
opportunities,  or  of  any  varieties,  either  of  character 
or  employment.     Heaven  is  a  place, 

'  Where  congregations  ne'er  break  up, 
And  Sabbaths  never  cud  ; ' 

as  if  mere  rest  from  lahor  and  attendance  upon 
religious  services  filled  up  the  whole  measure  of 
one's  desires  and  capacities." 

What  shall  we  say,  in  reply  to  all  this  I  Many 
highly  respectahle  Christians  would  respond  to  the 
effect  that  such  vain  talk  only  indicated  the  want 
of  true  spirituality  and  the  dominion  of  a  carnal 
mind  ;  and  then  go  home  to  the  enjoyment  of  their 
books  and  pictures  and  pleasant  gardens,  perhaps  to 
resume  the  discnssion  of  the  matter  around  a  table 
loaded  with  luxuries  and  sparkling  M-ith  costly 
wines. 

Is  it  not  better  to  acknowledge  that  God  is  hon- 
ored and  served  by  the  consecrated  use  of  all  the 
powers  and  faculties  with  which  lie  has  endowed 
us,  and  that  our  immortal  life  must  provide  for  the 


182  IMMORTALITY. 

culture  and  exercise  of  every  lofty  gift  which  per- 
tains to  our  nature  ?  I  believe  that,  as  the  redeem- 
ed will  be  employed  hereafter  in  ministries  of  love 
and  mercy,  so  there  will  be  ministries  of  art  and 
ministries  of  science  ;  researches  into  the  ffreat  facts 
of  the  universe,  which  have  been  prematurely  ar- 
rested here  by  the  hand  of  death,  will  be  taken 
up  ap^ain,  and  prosecuted  to  the  end  hereafter.  In 
this  2:)rimary  stage  of  our  being,  we  just  read  a 
chapter  or  two  in  the  great  book  of  knowledge 
which  God  has  given  us,  when  it  drops  from  om* 
hand,  and  the  mortal  v^ision  closes  forever.  We  have 
only  had  time  to  get  some  faint,  imperfect  notion 
of  the  marvels  of  creation,  the  mysteries  of  the  hu- 
man soul,  the  strange  anomalies  of  life,  the  pro- 
found depths  of  the  divine  economy.  Does  the 
study  end  there  ? 

With  an  eternity  before  us,  which  must  be  occu- 
pied with  something ;  with  faculties  immeasurably 
cpickened  and  expanded  by  the  new  sphere  of  ex- 
istence upon  wliich  we  have  entered  ;  with  a  field 
of  observation  opened  to  our  view,  wliich  knows  no 
boundary  or  limit ;  Avith  no  servile  work  to  do,  no 
clothing  to  weave,  no  food  to  earn,  no  houses  to  build, 
no  investments  to  watch — have  you  any  doubt  that 
there  will  be  such  noble  and  varied  employments 
for  the  mind  and  the  heart  as  will   test  to  the  full 


IMMORTALITY.  183 

every  capacity  of  our  being,  and  reveal  to  lis,  one 
by  one,  such  intinite  Avonders,  that  the  song  will 
spring  spontaneously  and  perpetually  from  our  lips, 
"Benedicite,  onniia  opera  Domini!"  With  angels 
and  archangels,  and  with  all  the  company  of  heaven, 
the  redeemed  will  laud  and  magnify  God's  glorious 
name  in  one  unceasing  anthem  ;  but  its  chords  and 
Iiarmonies  will  be  as  varied  and  multitudinous  as 
the  stars.  Every  song  that  is  sung  there  will  be 
set  to  the  same  grand  key-note:  "Worthy  is  the 
Lamb !"  will  be  the  one  absorbing  theme  ;  l)ut,  as 
the  rainbow,  which  arches  the  great  Avhite  throne, 
flashes  with  every  color  and  tint  of  earth  and  sky, 
so  that  voice  of  praise  M'ill  be  as  the  voice  of  many 
waters;  the  voice  of  great  thunders  mingling  with 
the  soft  harping  of  harps ;  all  tongues  and  lan- 
guages joining  in  praise  and  honor  and  glory  and 
blessing  to  Ilim  tliat  was  slain.  Whatever  else  may 
occupy  us,  we  sliall  never  tire  of  that  theme. 
Wherever  our  studies  and  researches  may  take  us, 
we  shall  always  rejoice  to  return  and  listen  to  His 
teacliings,  who  hath  redeemed  us  with  His  precious 
blood.  There  is  one  name  that  Avill  forever  be  to 
us  above  every  other  name.  And  when  eternity 
lias  grown  old,  we  shall  still  feel  that  we  have  not 
begun  to  fathom  the  depths  of  the  Saviour's  love. 
Some  of  you  may  be  surprised  ami  disappointed, 


184  IMMORTALITY. 

because  wc  liave  attempted  no  elaborate  and  direct 
proof  of  the  doctrine  of  man's  immortality,  but 
have  merely  addressed  onrselves  to  the  removal  of 
I  certain  jjopnlar  objections.  To  ask  your  assent  to 
this  doctrine,  on  the  ground  of  Scripture  evidence, 
Avould  be  simply  to  change  our  base,  and  enter  upon 
a  more  general  subject ;  for  no  one  Avho  receives 
the  ]!^ew  Testament  as  a  revelation  from  God,  can 
have  any  doubts  in  regard  to  liis  immortality.  I 
have  rested  the  general  argument  upon  the  simple 
ground  that  man  is  able  to  conceive  of  his  own  im- 
mortality, and,  if  this  conception  is  a  delusion,  all 
faith  in  God  becomes  extinct.  For,  if  any  thing 
that  pertains  to  our  nature  comes  from  Him,  this 
instinct  or  intuition  or  consciousness  must  have  been 
implanted  in  our  souls  by  His  hand.  To  believe 
that  He  has  deceived  us  is  the  most  horrible  thought 
that  can  enter  the  mind  of  man.  Then  I  do  not 
know  or  care  whether  any  thing  is  true,  and  I  would 
jDrefer  to  belie^^i  that  there  is  no  God. 

But,  let  it  be  observed  that  this  general  conscious- 
ness of  immortality  is  never  disturbed,  until  some 
subtle  man  begins  to  m-ge  objections,  and  it  is  for 
this  reason  that  I  have  contined  myself  to  the  con- 
sideration of  those  cavils,  and  tried  to  embody  them 
all  in  one  brief  sketch,  and  dispose  of  them.  H  I 
have  failed  to  do  this  satisfactorily,  you  nnist  not 


IMMORTALriY.  185 

conclude  tliat  they  can  nut  bo  removed,  but  attri- 
bute the  faihire  to  my  inability  to  cope  with  the 
subject.  I  am  sure  that  I  have  not  sought  to  evade 
the  cavils  of  the  unbeliever,  or  to  meet  thcni  with 
ambiguous  and  uncertain  replies.  I  have  much 
more  sympathy  with  those  earnest  but  doubting 
souls,  who  are  crying  out  of  the  darkness,  and 
looking  in  vain  for  some  gleam  of  light  to  illumine 
the  patlnvay  of  the  eternal  future,  but  still  looking 
with  anxious  hope,  and  trying  to  live  as  the}'  think 
God  would  have  them  live,  whether  they  are  to  die 
as  the  beast  dieth  or  not,  than  I  have  with  that 
great  multitude  mIio  passively  accept  the  fact  that 
they  are  to  live  somewhere  forever,  and  then  go 
about  their  work  and  their  play,  as  if  nothing  con- 
cerned them  l)eyond  the  gains  and  the  amusements 
of  the  day.  Better  to  doubt  honestly  than  to  believe 
stupidly. 

It  is  one  thing  to  accept  the  fact  of  innnortality 
as  a  part  of  one's  creed,  and  another  tiling  to  re- 
ceive it  into  the  soul  as  a  living  power,  so  that  we 
actually  enter  into  our  eternal  life  this  side  of  the 
grave.  "  Heaven  begun  is  the  living  proof  that 
makes  the  heaven  to  come  credible.  Christ  in  you 
is  the  hope  of  glory.  He  alone  can  l)elieve  in  im- 
mortality who  feels  the  resurrection  in  him."  The 
remedy  for  doubt  is  experience.     When  one  can 


186  IMMOKTALITY. 

say,  with  the  apostle,  "  I  know  whom  1  have  be- 
lieved, and  am  persuaded  that  Uq  is  ahle  to  keep 
that  which  I  have  committed  unto  him  against  that 
day,"  death  is  abolished,  and  life  and  immortality 
arc  bronght  to  light.  They  are  now  seen,  and  not 
merely  believed  in.  They  have  the  power  of  a  pre- 
sent fact,  and  so  they  regulate  our  thoughts  and 
condnct,  just  as  they  are  affected  by  the  things 
which  stand  right  before  us,  and  address  themselves 
to  our  senses.  A  holy  life  is  the  surest  protection 
against  doubt  and  unbelief. 


EVOLUTION 

AND   A 

PERSONAL    CHEATOR. 


JOHN  COTTON  SMITH,  D.D., 

Kectok  of  the  Church  of  the  AscE.\sio>f,  New-Yokk. 


EVOLUTION  AND  A  PERSONAL  CREATOR. 


The  subject  assigned  to  me  in  this  Course  of 
Lectures,  is  "  Evolution  and  a  Personal  Creator." 
It  presents  perhaps  the  most  important  aspect  of 
the  great  controversy  which  is  carried  on,  in  this 
age,  between  Science  and  Keligion.  The  conflict 
which,  in  former  years,  was  waged  upon  the  battle- 
fields of  Astronomy  and  Geology,  now  waxes  most 
fierce  upon  the  long  lines  of  vegetable  and  animal 
development.  On  the  one  side  are  those  who  claim 
to  be  the  discoverers  of  certain  facts  and  laws,  in 
nature,  as  to  the  history  of  life  on  our  globe,  and 
the  circiunstances  under  which  its  various  species 
have  appeared.  On  the  other  arc  the  advocates  of  a 
fundamental  religious  truth  which  they  claim  is 
seriously  compromised  by  these  alleged  facts  and 
laws. 

It  will  be  my  purpose,  in  this  Lecture,  to  take 
into  consideration  the  present  aspect  of  the  contro- 
versy, so  as  to  ascertain,  if  possible,  what  is  likely 
to  be  its  result  in  regard  to  the  interests  of  Reli- 
o-ion,  both  natural  and  revealed. 


190     EVOLUTION   AND   A   PERSONAL   CREATOR. 

I  cannot  claim  to  come  to  the  consideration  of 
this  subject  without  bias,  or  in  fact  without  posi- 
tive convictions.  It  is  a  profound  saying  of  Goethe, 
"  I  can  promise  to  be  upriglit,  but  not  to  be  without 
bias."  It  wouhl  be  impossible  for  me  to  put  my- 
self in  the  attitude  of  indifference  in  regard  to 
any  question  involving  the  existence  of  a  Personal 
God.  But  I  think  I  can  claim  to  be  earnestly  de- 
sirous to  consider  dispassionately  and  candidly  what- 
ever theory  may  be  urged  as  to  natural  phenomena, 
and  the  laws  by  which  they  are  governed.  I  can 
certainly  claim  to  have  large  sympathy  with  scien- 
tiiic  investigation,  and  with  the  spirit,  on  the  whole, 
in  which  it  is  prosecuted.  In  regard  to  the  as])ect 
of  the  general  subject  now  Ijefore  us,  I  would  say, 
at  the  outset,  that  it  is  no  part  of  my  purpose  to 
attempt  to  refute  the  theory  of  Evolution.  I  wish 
to  hold,  for  the  present,  the  position  which  Mr. 
Gladstone  has  recently  assumed  in  regard  to  it, 
that  of  a  suspense  of  judgment.  I  would  say, 
however,  that  the  direction  of  scientific  disco- 
very, for  the  last  few  years,  seems  to  me  to  ren- 
der it  not  improbable  that,  before  this  generation 
has  passed  away,  some  theory  of  Evolution  will  be 
generally  accepted  as  the  most  rational  explanation 
of  the  phenomena  of  nature.  "With  this  conviction 
I  shall  make  it  my  special  object  to  show  that,  even 


EVOLUTION    AND    A    PERSONAL    CREATOR.      191 

if  some  theory  of  Evolution  slioukl  come  to  he  es- 
tablished as  a  scientific  truth,  it  -would  not  militate 
against  any  interest  peculiar  to  Christianity,  or  in 
any  way  compromise  the  fundamental  principle  of 
religion — the  personality  of  God. 

It  will  1)0  necessary,  as  our  tirst  step,  to  define 
the  terms  in  M-hich  our  subject  is  stated.  This  can 
be  done  only  generally,  and  with  approximate  cor- 
rectness ;  for  fuller  definitions  would  shut  us  up  to 
some  one  of  the  various  forms  in  which,  on  the  one 
hand,  the  theory  of  Evolution,  or,  on  the  other,  the 
truth  of  the  personality  of  God,  is  held. 

To  begin  with  Evolution.  Some  idea  of  the 
difficulty  of  an  accurate  definition  of  Evolution  may 
be  derived  from  the  fact  that  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer, 
a  writer  not  usually  Avanting  in  clearness  of  state- 
ment, defines  it  as  follows  :  "  Evolution  is  an  inte- 
gration of  matter  and  concomitant  dissipation  of 
motion  j  during  which  the  matter  passes  from  an 
indefinite^  incoherent  homogeneity^  to  a  definite^  co- 
herent heterogeneity  y  and  during  which  the  retained 
motion  undergoes  a  parallel  transformatimiy  Sci- 
entific as  such  a  definition  is,  it  is  evidently  unfit 
for  popular  use.  AVe  must  seek  for  some  other, 
which,  while  it  will  liave  less  of  scientific  accuracy 
and  completeness,  will  better  answer  the  purpose 
we  have  in  view.     When  we  speak  in  this  discus- 


192     EVOLUTION   AND   A   PERSONAL   CllEATOK. 

sion  of  Evolution,  we  mean  the  theory  according  to 
which  all  life  on  our  globe  is  derived  in  a  continu- 
ous and  unbroken  series,  by  natural  generation,  from 
original  organisms.  In  extending  the  theory  to  its 
most  general  form,  it  embraces  all  phenomena,  inor- 
ganic as  well  as  organic,  and  affirms  that  all  phe- 
nomena are  linked  with  and  proceed  from  preced- 
ing phenomena,  by  a  process  of  development,  in  ac- 
cordance with  universal  laws,  from  the  most  simple 
to  the  most  complex  forms. 

The  doctrine  of  a  Personal  Creator  affirms  the 
existence  of  a  Being  from  whom  all  the  phenomena 
of  the  Universe  proceed,  and  by  whom  the  laws,  by 
which  they  are  governed,  were  established.  This 
Being,  the  doctrine  also  affirms,  is  self-conscious, 
and  has  those  attributes  without  which  personality 
is  unknown  to  us,  reason,  affections,  and  will. 

The  idea  of  the  absolute  continuity  of  this  pro- 
cess of  Evolution  necessarily  excludes  the  idea  of 
the  exercise,  since  the  beginning  of  the  process, 
of  what  has  usually  been  understood  as  creative 
power.  Here  is  one  point  where  the  theory  is 
thought  to  militate  against  the  idea  of  a  Personal 
Creator.  It  seems,  according  to  this  objection, 
to  diminish  the  need  of  a  Creator.  Then  it  is 
generally  held  by  ilie  advocates  of  this  theory, 
that   back    of    this    development,   or   previous   to 


EVOLUTION   AND   A    PERSONAL    CUEATOIl.      193 

tliis  beginning,  if  it  had  a  beginning,  lies  tlie 
nnknowable,  and  the  conchision  drawn  is  that 
if  there  is  a  Personal  Creator  it  is  to  us  as  if 
lie  Avere  not,  lor  Ave  cannot  know  Ilini.  Besides 
this,  whatever  discredits  that  which  has  been  ac- 
cepted as  a  Revelation  of  a  Personal  Creator  tends 
to  diminish  our  sense  of  His  Being,  and  since  the 
theory  of  Evolution  seems  to  conflict  with  the 
account  given  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  Origin  of 
Man,  it  has  been  thought  that,  in  this  Avay  also,  it 
not  only  compromises  interests  peculiar  to  Christi- 
anity, but  tends  to  undermine  our  faith  in  the  exis- 
tence of  a  Persojial  Creator. 

In  entering  upon  the  argument  required  by  this 
supposed  antagonism  between  the  theory  of  Evolu- 
tion and  the  truth  of  the  existence  of  a  Per- 
sonal Creator,  it  seems  to  me  desirable  to  And  some 
ffround  which  can  be  held  in  common  bv  the  Evo- 
lutionist,  even  if  he  is  not  a  Theist,  and  the  Theist 
even  if  he  is  not  an  Evolutionist. 

Or  in  other  words,  I  should  be  glad  to  conduct 
this  inquiry  upon  the  basis  of  an  agreement  between 
Theists,  who  are  ojjen  to  whatever  considerations 
may  be  m*ged  in  favor  of  the  theory  of  Evolution, 
and  Evolutionists  who,  while  their  primary  object 
is  the  investigation  of  nature  upon  scientific  princi- 
ples, are  ready  to  consider  candidly  the  arguments 


194:     EVOLUTION   AND   A   PERSONAL   CREATOR. 

which  maj  be  urged  in  behalf  of  the  presence  and 
agency  of  a  Personal  God  in  JS'ature. 

In  order  to  accomplish  this,  let  it  be  remembered 
that  the  Evolutionist  holds  that  there  has  been  a 
period  in  the  history  of  being,  when  whatever  ex- 
isted phenomenally  was  homogeneous,  that  is,  all 
alike.  What  that  was  which  then  existed  as  matter, 
that  is,  as  capable  of  affecting  us  as  what  we  call  mat- 
ter now  does,  the  Evolutionist  will  not  undertake  to 
determine.  It  may  have  been  of  inconceivable  ten- 
nity,  or  it  may  have  been,  though  having  all  the  attri- 
butes of  what  we  call  matter,  only  co-existent,  im- 
measurably diffused  force-centres.  Some  such  con- 
dition the  Evolutionist  must  believe  to  have  at  one 
time  existed. 

There  is  no  difficulty  whatever  for  the  Theist  in 
this  view.  Indeed,  he  most  readily  represents  to 
himself,  in  tliis  way,  the  phenomenal  result  of  the 
original  creative  act.  We  have  then  here  a  com- 
mon ground  upon  which  both  can  stand.  It  is  the 
critical  point  too  in  the  whole  controversy.  The 
waves  of  this  boundless  ether,  pulsating  with  its  all- 
pervading  forces,  are  perfectly  representable  in 
thought.  Let  us  see  if  we,  Theists  or  Evolution- 
ists, can  venture  back  together  into  the  mysterious 
depths  which  preceded  the  phenomenal  condition, 
in  the  presence  of  which  we  are  now  supposed  to 


EVOLUTION"  AND  A  PERSONAL  CREATOR.  195 

stand ;  and  tlicn,  turning  our  faces  to  the  future,  fol- 
low on  togethtT,  in  thought,  through  the  vast  cycles 
of  time,  the  stupendous  developments  of  the  Uni- 
verse. 

If  the  Evolutionist  should  say  here  that  it  is  true 
that  such  a  condition  of  things  must  have  existed, 
but  that  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  any  preced- 
ing period  ■when  the  phenomenal  did  not  exist, 
this  is  true  indeed,  but  it  will  not  prevent  our 
standing  on  connnon  ground,  nor  impede  the  pro- 
gress of  our  argument.  It  is  impossible  indeed  to 
conceive  of  a  beginning  of  phenomena,  but  it  is  also 
impossible  to  conceive  of  phenomena  not  having 
a  beginning  ;  and  if  the  Evolutionist  urges  the  one, 
the  Theist  can  balance  it  l)y  urging  the  other.  So 
far  then  there  is  nothing  gained  or  lost  upon  either 
side.  Let  the  Theist  waive  the  point  of  what  pre- 
cedes phenomena,  and  put  the  inrpiiry  in  this  form  : 
what  is  that  which  underlies  phenomena  and  the 
forces  which  in  phenomena  are  disclosed  ?  The 
Evolutionist  cannot  stand  upon  the  ground  of  utter 
nescience.  lie  is  compelled  to  admit,  and  he  does 
admit.  Absolute  Being.  He  may  say  that  we  can- 
not know  Absolute  Being,  but  he  is  obliged  to  say 
that  we  know  that  Absolute  Being  exists.  Mr.  Her- 
bert Spencer  himself  says,  "  By  the  'very  conditions 
of  thought  ice  are  j)revenied  from  hnowing  any 


196     EVOLUTION  AND   A   PERSONAL   CREATOR. 

thing  hut  relative  })eing  /  yet  hy  these  very  condi- 
tions of  thought,  an  indefinite  conscious7iess  of  Abso- 
lute Being  is  necessitated.''''  "  The  axiomatic  truths 
of  physical  scierice  tmavoiddbly  postulate  Ahsolute 
Being  as  their  common  basis.''''  ^^  Both  Jieligion 
and  Science  are  obliged  by  the  demonstrated  tmte- 
nahility  of  their  supposed  cognitions,  to  confess 
that  the  'idtimate  reality  is  incognizable,  and  yet 
both  are  obliged  to  assert  the  existence  of  an  JJlti- 
rnate  lieality.  Without  this.  Religion  has  no  sid)- 
ject  matter  y  and  without  this,  Science,  subjective 
and  objective,  lacks  its  indisp)ensable  datum.  We 
cannot  construct  a  theory  of  internal  phenomena 
without  postidat'ing  Absolute  Being  •  and  unless 
we  postulate  Absolute  Being,  or  being  which  per- 
sists, we  cannot  construct  a  theory  of  external  phe- 
nomena.''''    (First  Principles,  p.  190.) 

It  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  importance, 
in  onr  argument,  of  this  admission  of  Mr.  Spencer. 
The  Theist  and  Evolutionist  alike  have  thus  tran- 
scended phenomena  and  all  the  laws  of  their  succes- 
sion, and  recognized  an  Ultimate  Reality  and  Ab- 
solute Being.  It  matters  not  now  what  we  know  of 
this  Being.  We  shall  have  occasion  hereafter  to 
consider  that.  Our  point  now  is  that  Theists  and 
Evolutionists  have  together  drawn  aside  the  pheno- 
menal veil  which  hides  the  arcana  of  nature,  and 


EVOLUTION  AND  A  PERSONAL  CREATOR.   197 

recognized  the  Al)Solutc  Ijcing  within  the  sanctuary 
of  the  Universe. 

But  as  we  stand,  Theists  and  Evohitionists,  in 
imagination,  in  the  presence  of  this  boundless  ocean 
of  force-centres  or  nit i mate  atoms  of  matter,  and 
recognize  beyond  and  beneath  it  an  Ultimate  lieali- 
t_v  and  Absolute  Being,  the  inquiry  inevitably  sug- 
gests itself.  What  is  the  relation  of  the  Phenomenal 
Universe  to  the  Absolute  Being  ?  It  may  be  said, 
that  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  have  any  knowledge 
in  regard  to  any  such  relation,  and  that  the  whole 
subject  is  necessarily  shrouded  in  impenetrable  ob- 
scurity. But  it  may  be  replied  that  if  the  whole 
matter  is  thus  beyond  the  sphere  of  human  know- 
ledge, then  it  is  of  course  as  unwarrantable  to  deny 
the  relation  as  to  affirm  it.  The  Evolutionist  would 
not  hesitate  to  admit  this.  It  would  follow,  then, 
upon  this  admission,  that  it  is  at  least  as  reasonable 
to  affirm  this  relation  as  to  deny  it.  The  Evolu- 
tionist might  very  probably  agree  that  it  is  more 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  there  is  some  relation 
between  Absolute  Being  and  the  Phenomenal  Uni- 
verse. It  is  allowable  for  us  at  least  to  make  the 
supposition,  that  there  is  some  relation,  and  still 
further  to  make  some  supposition  as  to  what  the 
relation  is.  These  allowable  suppositions  we  can 
use  as  working  hypotheses.     Without  stopping  now 


198     EVOLUTION   AND   A   PERSONAL   CREATOR. 

to  examine  the  question  as  to  whether  we  are  en- 
tirely ignorant  of  Absokite  Being  and  of  its  relation 
to  the  Phenomenal  Universe,  we  will  go  only  so  far 
as  the  Evolutionist  will  permit  us  to  go,  without 
denying  the  validity  of  our  position.  He  will  not 
object  to  our  hypotheses,  since  in  regard  to  a  mat- 
ter of  which,  as  he  holds,  we  are  entirely  ignorant, 
any  hypothesis  is  just  as  likely  to  be  true  as  false. 
Postponing  then  any  effort  to  show  the  validity  of 
our  hypotheses,  I  would  suppose  that  a  relation  ex- 
ists between  Absolute  Being  and  the  Phenomenal 
Universe,  that  Absolute  Being  is  Personal  Being 
with  Peason,  Affections,  and  Will,  that  the  Ab- 
solute Being  is  immanent  in  the  Phenomenal 
Universe,  and  that  the  forces  and  laws  of  the  Phe- 
nomenal Universe  are  merely  expressions  of  the 
agency  and  will  of  the  Absolute  Being. 

It  is  important  to  notice  here  that  if  the  Evolu- 
tionist, while  he  cannot  deny  but  that  these  hypothe- 
ses may  be  true,  does  not  admit  the  validity  of  the 
evidence  in  behalf  of  their  truth,  it  is  not  in  conse- 
quence of  holding  the  theory  of  Evolution.  The 
theory  of  Evolution  does  not  touch  these  hypotheses 
at  any  conceivable  point.  A  man  may  hold  that 
theory  to  its  fullest  extent,  and  in  its  most  extreme 
form,  and  yet,  in  entire  consistency,  affirm  every  one 
of  these  hypotheses  to  be  true.     The  only  question 


EVOLUTION  AND  A  PERSONAL  CREATOR.  199 

tliiis  far  in  regard  to  which  there  is  a  difference  of 
opinion,  is  a  metaphysical  one  as  to  the  possibility 
of  our  knowledge  of  the  Absolute.  Whether  tlie 
theory  of  Evohitiou  is  true  or  false,  this  question 
remains  unaffected. 

Taking  up,  then,  these  hypotheses,  reserving  the 
evidence  of  their  truth  for  a  while,  and  contemplat- 
ing, in  imagination,  this  primitive  condition  of  the 
Universe,  we  find  ourselves  in  the  presence  of  the 
original  hyU  (as  the  Greeks  called  it),  or  matter,  in 
whicli  are  certain  all-pervading  forces  and  laws, 
which,  npon  our  present  supposition,  are  expressions 
of  the  agency  and  will  of  the  Absolute  Being. 

It  devolves  upon  ns  at  this  point  to  inquire  what 
is  the  character  of  these  forces,  and  what  are  the 
laws  by  which  their  operation  in  the  Universe  is 
governed  ?  It  is  impossible  of  course  to  do  more, 
at  this  time,  than  to  state  some  of  the  principal 
forces  and  laws,  and  those  upon  which  the  Evolu- 
tionist relies  as  the  methods  by  which  the  develop- 
ments of  the  Universe  are  evolved.  With  the  ad- 
vantao-e  of  the  magTiificent  discoveries  of  Science, 
we  know  something  of  those  forces  and  laws,  and 
we  can  see  what  would  l)e  the  method  and  the  re- 
sults of  their  operation  in  the  liomogeneous  mass  we 
have  supposed  to  be  before  us.  There  are  certain  pri- 
mary truths  through  which  tliese  forces  and  laws  are 


200     EVOLUTION"  AXD   A   PERSONAL    CREATOR. 

disclosed  to  iis.  Such  are  the  Persistence  of  Force, 
the  Continuity  of  Motion,  and  the  Indestructibility 
of  Matter.  The  last  two  are  necessarily  derived 
from  the  iirst ;  for  "  our  experiences  of  matter  and 
motion  are  resolvable  into  experiences  of  forced  I 
am  following  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  in  this  enumera- 
tion of  primary  truths,  as  I  shall  follow  him  also  in 
his  application  of  them  to  tlie  process  of  Evolution, 
because  I  wish  to  sliow  that  the  theory  of  Evo- 
lution, as  stated  by  its  most  renowned  advocates,  is 
not  inconsistent  with  the  belief  in  a  Personal  Crea- 
tor. 

And  liere  let  it  be  noticed  that  whatever  else 
may  be  the  result  of  a  process  of  evolution,  these 
laws  are  not.  They  precede  and  underlie  all  phe- 
nomena. They  are  eternal  principles.  They  inevi- 
tably suggest  an  eternal  mind,  of  which  they  are 
eternal  ideas.  And  we  seek  in  vain  for  a  subject  in 
which  these  eternal  principles  can  inhere,  if  not  in 
tlie  Ultimate  Reality,  the  Absolute  Being,  the  exis- 
tence of  which,  according  to  Mr.  Spencer,  we  are 
compelled  to  acknowledge. 

I  have  referred  to  force,  in  the  general,  as  includ- 
ing all  forces,  and  under  the  general  law  of  its  per- 
sistence, other  numerous  laws  will  group  them- 
selves. The  most  prominent  result  at  iirst  of  the 
operation  of  these  forces,  in  accordance  with  these 


EVOLUTION  AND  A  PEUSONAL  CREATOR.  201 

laws,  upon  the  homogeneous  mass  by  which  space  is 
supposed  to  be  tilled,  is  to  transform  its  homogene- 
ous into  a  heterogeneous  character.  Lines  of  force 
striking  a  homogeneous  mass,  at  different  angles, 
and  the  motion  of  its  particles  necessarily  following 
the  direction  of  least  resistance,  will  constitute 
a  process  of  differentiation.  We  see  the  amazing 
and  endless  varict}^  of  the  Universe  begin.  The 
play  of  these  forces  integrates  enormous  masses  of 
matter.  The  process  of  integration  is  accompanied 
by  that  of  segregation  and  equilibration.  Groups,  in 
a  wonderful  order,  with  vast  intervals,  move  with 
inconceivable  velocity  through  the  abysses  of  space. 
Measureless  periods  of  time  roll  away,  and  we  be- 
hold the  Stellar  Universe,  that  Universe  beneath 
the  contemplation  of  which  man  trembles  with  the 
sense  of  his  own  nothingness,  as  he  is  overwhelmed 
with  the  splendor  and  majesty  of  this  stupendous 
theatre  for  the  development  of  life.  As  we  stand 
at  this  point  in  the  marvellous  process,  what  shall 
M'e  think  of  Absolute  Being,  the  existence  of  which 
we  are  compelled  to  acknowledge  ?  Are  we  any  less 
sure  of  the  agency  of  this  Being,  any  less  certain 
that  there  are  Reason  and  Will  behind  all  pheno- 
mena, than  we  should  be  if  we  had  seen  shaping 
hands  come  forth  from  the  darkness,  and  Ijuild  up 
the  stately  constellations  i     IS'ay,  are  we  not  more 


202     EVOLUTION  AND   A   PERSONAL   CREATOR. 

profoundly  impressed  by  the  invisible  and  silent, 
and  immensely  protracted  and  infinitely  patient 
agency  by  wliicli  phenomena  seem  to  come  into 
being !  And  as  the  Evolutionist  recognizes  the 
Absolute  Being  and  its  relationship  to  the  pheno- 
menal universe,  and  is  iilled  with  wonder  and  awe 
at  the  mystery  of  this  rational  development  an- 
swering to,  but  infinitely  surpassing,  a  reason  of 
which  he  is  conscious  in  himself,  does  not  an  al- 
most irresistible  impulse  move  him  to  a  recognition 
of  a  Personal  Being,  and  could  any  more  reason- 
able utterance  rise  to  his  lips  than  this  :  "  Thou, 
Lord,  in  the  beginning  hast  laid  the  foundations  of 
the  earth,  and  the  heavens  are  the  work  of  Thine 
hands"  ! 

Thus  far  we  have  witnessed  but  the  mere  prelude 
of  that  development  which  the  Evolutionist  claims 
has  proceeded  uninterruptedly  in  nature  to  the  pre- 
sent time.  We  have  seen  that,  up  to  this  point, 
there  is  nothing  in  the  theory,  or  the  facts  which 
support  it,  which  conflicts  with  the  idea  of  a  Per 
sonal  Being,  from  whom  all  this  development  pro 
ceeds,  and  by  whom  it  is  carried  on.  The  only 
suggestion  of  difficulty,  which  is  our  alleged  igno- 
i-ance  of  the  Absolute,  is,  as  has  already  been  said,  a 
-metaphysical  difficulty,  and  is  in  no  way  the  result 
of  the  theory  of  Evolution. 


EVOLUTION    AND   A   PERSONAL   CllEATOU.      203 

AVonld  it.  conflict  at  all  with  the  idea  of  a  Per- 
soiial  Creator,  if  it  shoukl  be  supposed  that  the  pro- 
cess, having  reached  this  point,  is  still  continuous, 
and  moves  up  into  a  hii;her  sphere,  presenting  an 
entirely  new  class  of  phenomena?  If  a  Personal 
God  ciiooses  that  the  works  of  His  hands  shall  he 
evolved  step  by  step,  each  link  joined  to  the  preced- 
ino-  in  an  endless  chain,  instead  of  breaking  up  the 
continuity  from  time  to  time  and  beginning  anew, 
does  He  thereby  obscure  to  us  the  fact  of  His  exist- 
ence ?  Does  not  the  continuous  process,  which  is, 
in  effect,  one  uninterrupted  series  of  acts  of  crea- 
tion, testify  more  clearly  than  a  mere  mechanical 
process,  interrupted  from  time  to  time  by  special 
acts  of  creation,  could  possibly  do  to  an  infinite 
"Reason,  which  sees  the  end  from  the  beginning  ? 

Supposing  this  to  be  so,  and  that  there  would  be 
rather  gain  than  loss  for  the  Theistic  argument, 
should  it  appear  that  the  process  of  evolution  is 
still  continuous  front  inorganic  to  organic  nature, 
we  arc  prepared  to  consider  the  evidence  to  be  of- 
fered that  this  is  the  case. 

Suppose  we  still  stand  in  imagination  at  the 
point  we  have  already  reached  in  the  process  of 
evolution.  We  presently  behold  a  new  phenomenon 
—that  of  life.  It  does  not  burst  upon  us  suddenly 
in  highly  advanced  organisms  ;  we  liud  it  in  the 


204     EVOLUTION   AND   A   PERSONAL    CREATOR. 

simplest  possible  forms.  In  bringing  the  process 
before  oiir  minds,  we  can  of  course  avail  ourselves 
only  of  the  facts  which  are  made  knoMai  to  ns  of 
that  early  period  in  the  stratified  history  of  our 
globe.  These  facts  are  few  ;  the  record  is  exceed- 
ingly imperfect ;  but  in  connection  with  other  facts 
now  accessible  to  ns,  they  seem  to  indicate  that  the 
first  appearance  of  life,  supposing  we  had  been  wit- 
nesses of  it,  would  not  have  seemed  to  us  any  inter- 
ruption of  a  continuous  order  of  development. 
One  who  sees  crystalline  formation,  with  its  deli- 
cate shoots  branching  out  on  either  side  from  a  cen- 
tral axis,  would  not  be  conscious  of  any  disturbance 
of  an  established  order  in  the  appearance  of  j^lants, 
in  the  midst  of  what  had  hitherto  been  inorganic 
nature.  In  animal  life,  also,  we  reach  a  point  where 
the  transition  from  the  inorganic  would  be  almost 
imperceptible.  In  the  2>^'otogenes  of  Haeckel  we 
have,  according  to  Mr.  Spencer, "  a  type  distinguish- 
able from  a  fragment  of  albumen  only  by  its  finely 
granular  character."  There  are  certain  remarkable 
facts  also  in  this  connection,  recognized  by  scientific 
men,  and  appealed  to  by  the  Evolutionist  in  support 
of  his  theory.  For  instance,  the  matter  constituting 
the  living  world  is  identical  with  that  which  forms 
the  inorganic  world.  And  what  is  still  more  remark- 
able is,  that  all  the  forces  exerted  in  the  living 


EVOLUTIOX   AND   A   1>EUS0XA[.   CREATOR.      205 

world  are  probably  cither  identical  with  the  forces 
of  the  inorganic  world,  or  are  convertible  into  them. 
Besides,  organic  nature  is  all  the  time  built  up  out 
of  inorganic  nature,  and  returns  into  inorganic  na- 
ture again.  It  may  be  said,  indeed,  by  those  who 
O2>pose  this  theory,  that  organic  nature  is  inorganic 
nature  plus  life,  and  that  the  addition  of  life  to  na- 
ture is  a  new  creation.  But  since  we  are  supposing 
a  divine  act  in  every  change  of  phenomena,  how 
does  it  detract  from  the  creative  agency  of  God,  if 
we  affirm  that  through  a  certain  arrangement  of 
molecules  life  is  developed,  and  plants  or  animals 
take  their  place  in  the  boundless  fields  of  nature  ? 
This  i^rocess  of  evolution,  throui>-h  inconceivably 
complex  conditions  and  incalculable  periods  of  time, 
has  resulted,  at  last,  according  to  the  Evolutionist, 
in  the  flora  and  fauna  of  the  vegetable  and  animal 
kingdoms  of  the  present  time. 

We  liave  thus  passed  in  our  survey  of  the  history 
of  phenomena  from  inorganic  to  organic  being. 
Certainly  no  point  has  been  reached  where  Theist 
and  Evolutionist,  whom  we  have  thus  placed  in  a 
temporary  antithesis,  need  to  separate.  If  life  has 
at  last  appeared  upon  the  stage  of  being  by  a  pro- 
cess of  fine  gradations,  instead  of  by  a  sudden  irrup- 
tion of  a  new  order  of  things,  is  there  any  reason 
why  the  Theist  should  be  disturbed  'i     Is  there  any 


206     EVOLUTION  AND   A   PERSONAL   CREATOR. 

reason  wliy  lie  should  liesitate,  in  the  supposed  in- 
terest of  theology,  to  accept  this  as  the  truth  in  re- 
gard to  the  first  appearance  of  life  upon  our  globe  ? 
lie  can  recognize  the  All-powerful  One  behind 
this  process  just  as  well  as  he  could,  if  he  had  seen 
a  full-sized  tree  or  animal  start  suddenly  and  with- 
out any  phenomenal  antecedents  into  being.  And 
the  Evolutionist,  still  haunted  by  the  presence  of 
the  inscrutable  Power  which  lies  back  of  all  phe- 
nomena, and  which  he  recognizes,  waits  to  hear 
whether  a  knowledge  of  this  power  is  accessible  to 
other  than  the  mere  scientific  faculties  of  the  mind, 
and  is  as  far  as  possible  from  the  affirmation  of  the 
fool  who  '•  has  said  in  his  heart,  there  is  no  God." 

It  is  a  part  of  my  object,  as  I  have  already  inti- 
mated, to  present  as  fairly  and  strongly  as  I  may  be 
able  to  do,  in  the  limits  permitted  me,  the  grounds 
upon  which  the  doctrine  of  evolution  rests  and 
claims  the  acceptance  of  thinking  men.  It  becomes 
desirable,  therefore,  at  this  point,  to  consider  some 
of  the  laws  and  facts  which  exist  in  the  animal 
world,  upon  which  the  process  of  evolution  is  al- 
leged to  rest. 

It  is  then,  in  the  first  place,  a  well-known  law  in 
nature,  that  animal  life  constantly  encroaches  upon 
the  means  of  subsistence,  or,  as  stated  scientifically, 
that  animal  life  increases  in  a  geometrical  progres- 


EVOLUTION   AND   A   PERSONAL   CREATOR.     207 

sion,  wliilc  the  ineaiis  of  subsistence  increase  only 
in  an  aritlimetical  progression.  Tlie  inevitable  con- 
sequence is,  tliat  a  struggle  for  existence  ensues,  in 
which  the  more  hardy  and  vigorous  prevail,  or  in 
the  language  generally  used  in  this  connection, 
there  is  a  "  survival  of  the  littest."  Then  conies  in 
the  law  of  Heredity,  or  the  likeness  of  offspring  to 
their  parents,  by  which  there  is  a  tendency  to  the 
extension  and  perpetuation  of  the  stronger  and 
better  qualities.  Then  there  is  the  tendency  to  vari- 
ation, inidcr  the  influence  of  special  surroundings 
and  acquired  habits.  These  variations  are  almost 
always  in  the  line  of  advantage  to  the  animal,  and 
becoming  stamped,  as  it  were,  upon  the  organism, 
are  themselves  transmissible  by  inheritance.  There 
is,  therefore,  a  constant  uplifting  of  life,  a  move- 
ment from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  from  the 
unit  to  the  manifold. 

There  are,  however,  certain  objections  in  regard 
to  this  theory,  which  we  are  bound  at  this  point  to 
consider,  candidly  weighing  the  replies  which  the 
evolutionist  has  made. 

The  theory  of  evolution  supposes  that  life  has 
been  undergoing  ceaseless  variation  from  tlie  very 
first  period  of  its  existence,  yet  some  of  its  ear- 
liest forms  survive  to  the  present  day,  and  it  is 
duuljtful   whether    there   have    been   any    specific 


208     EVOLUTION   AND   A   PERSONAL   CREATOR, 

changes  within  the  periods  of  histoiy.  This  is  a  dif- 
ficulty which  besets  the  theory  in  respect  both  to 
animal  and  vegetable  life,  and  it  may  be  well  to  con- 
jsider  it  here  for  a  moment  in  regard  to  both.  The 
evolutionist  meets  it  by  the  assertion  of  what  he  calls 
"  persistence  of  type"  in  nature.  With  a  tendency 
in  organisms  to  indefinite  variation,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  external  causes,  there  is  also  a  tendency  to 
adhere  to  the  original  type,  and  this  tendency, 
under  favorable  circumstances,  is  able  to  persist 
through  immense  periods  of  time;-  It  may  be,  also, 
the  evolutionist  can  plausibly  urge,  that  the  whole 
period  embraced  in  history  is  too  short  for  percep- 
tible changes  in  species  of  vegetable  or  animal  life. 
Still  further,  it  may  be  urged,  there  may  be  laws 
which  restrain  evolution  in  certain  directions  while 
permitting  it  in  others.  And  last  of  all,  the  evo- 
lutionist may  say  to  us  that  the  more  highly  organ- 
ized life  is,  the  more  stable  it  becomes,  and  that  it 
now  requires  immensely  more  protracted  periods  to 
accomplish  Avliat  we  should  call  specific  changes 
than  was  the  case  when  organisms  were  generally 
less  complex. 

Another  objection  which  has  been  urged  against 
the  theory  of  evolution  is,  that  there  is  an  absence 
in  the  geologic  record  of  life  of  those  fine  grada- 
tions between  what  we  call  species,  which  might 


EVOLUTION  AND  A  PERSONAL  CREATOR.  209 

be  expected  to   exist  if  all  life  had  proceeded  by 
development  from  one  or  a  few  primordial  germs. 
But  the  cvolntionist  might  reply  that  the  theory 
of  evolution  does  not  necessarily  suppose  this  de- 
velopment to  have  proceeded  from  one  or  a  few 
original  germs.     The  development  may  have  pro^ 
ceeded  from  a  vast  number  of  original  germs,  and 
upon  a  vast  nmnber  of  parallel  lines.     This  would 
account  for  the  absence  of  line  gradations  between 
different  species  of  animal  life.     But  besides  this, 
the  record  of  life  on  our  globe  is  very  imperfect. 
The  smallest  proportion  possible  of  the  life  which 
has  existed  has  left  any  trace  behind.     There  are 
gaps  and  chasms  everywhere  in  the  record.     The 
entire  contents  of  strata  of  immense  depth  have 
been  utterly  destroyed.     Now,  if  we  suppose  that 
no  such  destruction  of  organic  remains  had  taken 
place,  who  can  say  but  that  these  gaps  and  chasms 
would  be  found  to  be  tilled  up,  and  that  we  should 
behold  a  record  of  all  the  various  forms  of  animal 
life,   blending    by   imperceptible    gradations   into 
each  other  ?     But  while  such  a  development  of  life 
has  been  everywhere  and  at  all  times  interrupted 
and  arrested,  there  are  preserved,  here  and  there, 
traces  of  the  links  by  which  various  species  were 
united.     The  fossiliferous  strata  present  not  a  few 
of  what  are  called  intercalary  forms  tilling  up  the 


210     EVOLUTION  AND   A   PERSONAL   CREATOR. 

gaps  between  different  species,  and  suggesting  to 
the  thoughtful  mind  the  missing  characters  which 
have  disappeared  from  the  record. 

It  has  also  been  urged  against  the  theory,  that  no 
instance  has  ever  been  known  of  one  species  pass- 
ing into  another,  and  that  therefore  the  doctrine  of 
the  transmutation  of  species,  which  is  involved  in 
this  theory,  is  destitute  of  foundation.  The  an- 
swer which  is  made  to  this  objection  is  that  the 
evolution  is  not  supposed  to  be  lateral,  that  is,  from 
what  we  call  one  species  to  another  already  exist- 
ing species,  but  that  it  is  uniforndy  in  the  line  of 
the  gradual  improvement  of  species.  Thus,  even 
within  the  historical  period,  in  which  the  time  for 
such  developments  has  been  so  brief,  m'c  find  such 
an  advance  as  to  constitute,  on  any  accepted  prin- 
ciple of  classification,  a  new  species.  The  order 
columbcB  is,  as  is  well  known,  a  notable  instance  of 
this.  There  is  nothing  better  understood  by  natu- 
ralists than  the  ease  with  which  variations  are  es- 
tablished and  transmitted  in  the  pigeon  tribe. 
With  such  an  indication  of  a  tendency  in  nature  to 
permanent  and  rapidly  increasing  variation,  it  is 
difficult  to  resist  the  conclusion  that  sufiicientiy 
protracted  periods  of  time,  with  the  inevitable 
struggle  for  existence,  and  the  fact  of  the  trans- 


EVOLUTION   AND   A   PERSONAL   CREATOR.     211 

mission  of  acquired  peculiarities,  may  be  sufficient 
to  account  for  all  the  varied  development  of  life. 

There  is  a  remarkable  passage  in  Coleridge's 
Aids  to  liejicctLon^  in  which  that  profound  phi- 
losopher anticipates,  by  a  sort  of  insight  into  nature, 
the  discoveries  of  the  last  few  years,  as  to  the  as- 
cending evolution  of  life.  lie  says,  "  Every  rank 
of  creatures,  as  it  ascends  in  the  scale  of  creation, 
leaves  death  behind  it  or  under  it.  The  metal,  at 
its  height  of  being,  seems  a  mute  prophecy  of  the 
coming  vegetation,  into  a  mimic  semblance  of  which 
it  crystallizes.  The  blossom  and  flower,  the  acme 
of  vegetable  life,  divides  into  correspondent  organs 
with  reciprocal  functions,  and  by  instinctive  mo- 
tions and  approximations  seems  impatient  of  that 
lixure  by  which  it  is  differenced  in  kind  from  the 
flower-shaped  Psyche  that  flutters  with  free  wing 
above  it.  And  wonderfully,  in  the  insect  realm, 
doth  the  irritability,  the  proj^er  seat  of  instinct, 
while  yet  the  nascent  sensibility  is  subordinated 
thereto — most  wonderfully,  I  say,  doth  the  muscu- 
lar life  in  the  insect,  and  the  musco-arterial  in  the 
bird,  imitate  and  typically  rehearse  the  adaptive 
understanding,  yea,  and  the  moral  affections  and 
charities  of  man.  Let  us  carry  ourselves  back,  in 
spirit,  to  the  mysterious  week,  the  teeming  work- 
days of  the  Creator,  as  they  rose  in  vision  before 


213    EVOLUTioisr  and  a  personal  creator. 

the  eye  of  the  inspired  historian,  of  the  generations 
of  the  heavens  and  of  the  earth,  in  the  day  that  the 
Lord  God  made  the  earth  and  the  heavens.  And 
Avho  tliat  liath  watched  their  ways  Avith  an  under- 
standing lieart  could,  as  tlie  A-ision  evolving  still 
advanced  toward  him,  contemplate  the  filial  and 
loyal  Bee  ;  the  home-huilding,  Avedded  and  divorce- 
less  Swallow ;  and  above  all,  the  manifoldly  intelli- 
gent Ant  tribes,  with  their  commonwealths  and 
confederacies,  their  warriors  and  miners,  the  hus- 
band folk,  that  fold  in  their  tiny  flocks  on  the 
honeyed  leaf,  and  the  virgin  sisters,  Avitli  the  holy 
instincts  of  maternal  love,  detached,  and  in  selfless 
purity — and  not  say  to  himself,  Behold  the  shadow 
of  approaching  humanity  ;  the  sun  rising  from  be- 
hind, in  the  kindling  morn  of  creatiou.  Thus  all 
lower  natures  find  their  highest  good  in  semblances 
and  seekings  of  that  wliicli  is  higher  and  better. 
All  things  strive  to  ascend,  and  ascend  in  their 
striving." 

When  we  thus  contemplate  nature,  the  very  fact 
of  its  wonderful  order,  and  its  universal  subordina- 
tion to  law,  only  makes  it  seem  to  us  all  the  more 
instinct  Vv'ith  a  divine  life.  The  evolutionist,  in  the 
presence  of  this  rational  development,  can  utter  no 
reasonable  protest,  if  we  exclaim — 


EVOLUTION   AND   A    PERSONAL    CREATOR.      213 

"  (Joel  of  the  Granito  and  tlie  Rose  ! 

Soul  of  the  bparrow  and  the  Bee  ! 
The  mighty  tide  of  Being  flows 

Through  countless  channels,  Lord,  from  Thee. 
It  leaps  to  life  in  grass  and  flowers, 

Through  every  grade  of  being  runs  ; 
While  from  Creation's  radiant  towers. 

Its  glory  flames  in  Stars  and  Suns." 

The  difficulty  culminates,  however,  as  we  reach 
that  point  in  the  process  where  man  appears.  I 
wish  to  speak  here  with  the  utmost  care,  lest  I 
sliould  1)0  misunderstood.  The  theory  which  in- 
volves man  in  this  process  of  evolution,  whether  as 
regards  his  body  alone,  or  both  the  body  and  the 
sold,  is  inconsistent  with  the  interpretation  of  the 
scriptural  account  of  the  origin  of  man,  Mhich  I,  in 
common  with  other  believers  in  Christianity,  have 
received.  I  confess  to  very  great  reluctance  to  hav- 
ing that  interpretation  revised.  I  am  by  no  means 
prepared  to  admit  that  a  process  of  evolution,  in- 
cluding man,  is  as  yet  so  thoroughly  established  as 
to^  render  it  certain  that  this  interpretation  must  be 
modified.  But  I  remember  that  previous  interpre- 
tations of  the  same  class  of  subjects  have  been  mo- 
dified, and  even  abandoned,  and  yet  the  great  his- 
torical faith  of  the  Church  has  survived  unimpaired. 
I  recognize  the  fact,  so  plainly  disclosed  in  history, 


214:     EVOLUTION"  AXD   A   PERSONAL   CREATOR. 

that  true  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures  has  been 
largely  dependent  upon  scientific  progress.  I  be- 
lieve the  investigation  of  nature  to  be  one  of  the 
means  by  which  the  Holy  Spirit  leads  us  into  all 
truth.  I  do  not  dare,  therefore,  to  affirm  that  my 
interpretation  of  the  Scriptures  on  this  point  is  a 
iinalit}^,  connected  as  it  is  only  indirectly  by  a  logi- 
cal process  Avith  any  article  of  the  faith.  I  can  not 
venture  to  subject  the  faith  itself  to  the  stress  and 
strain  which  should  be  borne  by  my  fallible  inter- 
pretation alone.  I  must  be  open,  therefore,  to  any 
truth  which  God  may  teach  in  nature,  in  response 
to  human  inrpiiry ;  and  faith  should  be  strong 
enough  for  a  fidl  assurance  that  all  such  truth  will 
lead  to  2nore  glorious  views  of  God,  and  of  that 
salvation  which  lie  has  provided  for  mankind. 

It  is  not  necessarily  involved  in  my  subject  to 
consider  the  possible  reconciliation  of  the  scriptu- 
ral account  of  the  origin  of  man  with  the  theory  of 
evolution.  But  the  possibility  of  such  a  reconcilia- 
tion, should  the  theory  be  established,  is  so  impor- 
tant, and  so  closely  connected  with  the  purpose 
which  I  have  in  view,  that  I  will  not  evade  the  dif- 
ficulty, nor  shun  the  delicate  task  of  its  considera- 
tion. 

It  will  be  well  for  us  then  to  remember,  lest  our 
apprehensions   should  be  unduly  excited,  that  the 


EVOLUTION   AND  A   PERSONAL   CREATOR.      215 

interpretation  in  question  has  never  had  tlie  sanc- 
tion of  tlie  Church,  nor  of  the  entire  body  of  Chris- 
tian teachers.  St.  George  Mivart  has  shown  con- 
clusively that  a  theory  of  evolution  was  held  by 
some  of  the  most  distinguished  of  the  Christian 
philosophers  of  the  period  of  the  schoolmen.  In 
fact,  it  is  not  at  all  certain  but  that  the  interpreta- 
tion in  question  is  itself  the  result  of  the  imperfect 
science  of  earlier  periods,  and  that  the  mischief,  in 
this  respect,  which  science  has  done,  science  is  now 
to  repair. 

Let  us  understand  clearly  the  difficulty  we  are  to 
meet  here.  It  is  not  the  question  of  the  existence 
of  a  Personal  God.  That  question  is  not  involv- 
ed, in  any  sjiccial  sense,  in  the  origin  of  man.  It  is 
not  the  question  of  the  freedom  of  the  Avill  and 
moral  accountability.  There  is  nothing  in  the  the- 
ory of  a  process  of  evolution  inconsistent  with  the 
arrival  of  being,  at  some  point,  to  all  that  which  is 
involved  in  the  moral  attributes  of  man.  The  ques- 
tion is  not  mainly  whether  the  scriptural  account 
of  this  matter  is  to  be  understood  literally,  or  is  an 
account  cast  in  a  poetic  form.  The  account  itself, 
in  the  indiscriminate  use  in  it  of  Hebrew  words 
signifying  to  create  and  to  make,  as  well  as  in  other 
respects,  affords  indications  that  it  was  not  intend- 
ed to  be  cast  in  a  mould  of  rigid  scientific  accuracy. 


216  EVOLUTION  AND  A  PERSONAL  CREATOR. 

Neither  Christianity  nor  the  claims  of  God's  word 
would  be  compromised,  even  if  the  Mosaic  account 
should  be  proved  to  be  an  Oriental  allegory,  teach- 
ing important  truth  nnder  poetical  forms.  The 
real  difficulty  here  encountered  is  in  regard  to  the 
fall  of  man,  which  is  a  fundamental  fact  in  histori- 
cal Christianity.  At  hrst  view,  it  seems  entirely 
inconsistent  with  the  theory  of  evolution.  That 
presents  to  us,  apparently,  an  uninterrupted  pro- 
gress towards  a  higher  and  better  condition.  What 
place  is  there,  then,  in  the  process,  for  such  a  fact 
as  the  Fall  ? 

In  answering  this  question,  we  are  led  to  the  con- 
sideration of  a  peculiarity,  in  this  j^rocess,  which  has 
attracted  the  attention  of  scientific  men.  This  pe- 
culiarity has  been  described  as  an  occasional  blun- 
dering or  blind  groping  of  nature.  There  seem  to 
be  tentative  movements  in  nature.  There  are  fail- 
ures and  positive  degenerations.  There  is  a  ten- 
dency to  variation,  not  only  in  the  direction  of  ad- 
vantage and  progress,  but  of  arrested  development 
and  deterioration.  This  fact,  about  Avliich  there  is 
no  dispute,  has  been  thought  by  some  to  furnish  an 
argument  against  design  in  nature.  There  is  a  suf- 
ficient reply  to  that  suggestion,  but  its  considera- 
tion does  not  come  now  within  our  province.  The 
use  which  I  wish  now  to  make  of  it  is  as  an  indica- 


EVOLUTION  AND  A  PERSONAL  CREATOR.  217 

tion  in  tlic  lower  physical  order  of  what  takes  place 
in  the  higher  moral  realm  of  nature. 

There  is  then  a  tendency  to  degeneration,  as  well 
as  to  progress,  in  nature.  If  the  theory  of  Evolu- 
tion is  true,  the  same  law  will  manifest  itself  in  the 
moral  order.  And  Avhat  is  the  Fall  of  Man  but 
that  fact  in  the  moral  order,  of  which  we  have  a 
prophecy  in  the  deteriorations  of  the  physical 
world ! 

It  will  be  wise  in  us  to  watch  carefully  the  pro- 
o-ress  of  investigation  in  this  respect.  The  results 
already  reached  are  certainly  not  of  a  character  to 
be  set  lightly  aside.  The  indications,  in  embryolo- 
ev,  of  the  links  between  man  and  the  lower  orders  of 
animal  life  ;  the  foreshadowing  of  human  sentiment 
and  emotion  in  the  passions  of  the  brute  creation  ; 
the  startling  suggestion  which  obtrudes  itself,  as  we 
study  nature,  that  certain  habits  in  man  may  be  the 
transmitted  results  of  habits  acquired  all  along  that 
line  of  organic  development,  through  which  huma- 
nity has  been  built  up  from  the  dust  of  the  earth  ; 
the  wonderful  fact  that  the  book  of  Genesis  itself 
groups  man  with  the  lower  orders  of  animal  life  in 
the  last  period  of  creation  ;  all  these  considerations 
should  be  thoughtfully  and  candidly  weighed.  I  am 
perfectly  aware  of  tlie  strength  of  the  arguments 
which   are  urged  against  these  considerations  on 


218  EVOLUTIOX  AXD  A  PERSOXAL  CREATOE. 

strictly  scientific  grounds.  One  eminent  man  has 
not  long  since  passed  away,  who,  Avith  the  highest 
scientific  reputation,  was  a  conspicuous  opponent  of 
these  views.  I  need  not  dwell  iipon  the  position, 
in  this  respect,  of  Professor  Agassiz.  This  com- 
munity will  have  the  opportunity  within  the  next 
fortnight  of  listening  to  a  full  exposition  of  this 
subject,  from  one  of  our  most  distinguished  scho- 
lars and  divines,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Osgood.  But  it  is  a 
significant  fact  that  Professor  Agassiz  leaves  scarce- 
ly any  successor,  in  the  higher  walks  of  science,  to 
his  opinions  upon  the  subject  of  evolution.  The 
apparent  inevitableness  of  the  drift  of  scientific  opi- 
nion in  the  direction  of  this  theory  can  hardly  be 
appreciated  by  any  one  who  is  not  familiar  with  the 
l^rinciples  of  scientific  investigation.  A  discovery, 
which,  to  men  generally,  would  have  little  signifi- 
cance, is,  to  the  intellect  trained  in  scientific  meth- 
ods, full  of  suggestiveness  as  to  the  plan  of  nature. 
The  unanimity  among  scientific  men,  with  which 
these  discoveries  are  regarded  as  pointing  in  one 
general  direction,  and  demanding  an  interpretation 
of  nature  upon  the  hypothesis  of  Evolution,  is  some- 
thing very  remarkable,  and  should  receive  the  seri- 
ous consideration  of  at  least  every  educated  Chris- 
tian man.  It  is  the  solemn  duty  of  the  Christian 
world,  in  view  of  what  may  ere  long  be  universally 


EVOLUTION   AND   A   TERSONAL    CREATOR.      219 

accepted  scientific  opinions,  to  give  its  Lest  thought 
to  the  discrimination  which  may  be  made  between 
intei'pretations  of  certain  portions  of  the  Scriptures 
and  tlie  essential  facts  and  truths  of  the  Christian 
faith. 

Professor  Agassiz,  while  opposing  the  theory  of 
evolution,  planted  himself  firmly,  in  one  respect, 
upon  a  foundation,  from  which  it  was  impossible 
for  him,  by  any  scientific  conclusions,  to  be  remov- 
ed, lie  claimed  to  recognize  everywhere  in  nature 
the  thought  of  God.  Science,  Avitliin  the  self-ap- 
pointed limits  of  tlic  investigation  of  phenomena, 
and  the  laws  of  their  sequence,  can  never  disturl) 
tliis  position ;  for  it  lies  outside  of  phenomena,  and 
is  afhrmed  by  faculties  higher  tlian  the  mere  scien- 
tific faculties  of  the  mind.  The  evohitionist,  wlio 
does  not  recognize  any  thing  outside  of  ])lienomena 
as  constituting  a  part  of  his  philosophical  system, 
can  take  no  exception  to  this,  any  more  than  to 
the  other  hypotlieses  which  we  liave  made.  We, 
as  theists,  have  gone  with  the  evolutionist  nil  along 
through  the  history  of  phenomenal  being.  AYe  do 
not  venture  to  say  but  that  all  he  claims  as  to  the 
order  and  method  of  the  development  of  nature 
may  be  true.  We  hold  him,  also,  at  this  point,  to 
these  admissions ;  that  there  is  Absolute  Being 
back  of  all  phenomena,  and  that,  in  the  absence  of 


220     EVOLUTION  AND   A    PERSONAL    CREATOR. 

any  possible  knowledge  of  this  Being,  the  hypo- 
thesis that  it  is  a  personal  Being,  who  has  construct- 
ed nature  upon  a  rational  plan,  the  features  of 
which  we  can  trace  in  the  phenomenal  Universe,  is, 
at  least,  as  reasonable. as  any  other. 

But  w^e  are  now  prepared  to  go  further.  "VV"e 
have  kept  common  ground,  so  far.  ISTow  we  affirm 
that  the  position  of  nescience,  in  regard  to  Abso- 
lute Being,  is  untenable,  and  that  there  are  satis- 
factory and  conclusive  considerations  which  should 
carry  the  mere  scientific  investigator  Avith  us,  when 
w^e  affirm  the  truth  of  the  hypotheses  wdiich  we 
have  made.  It  is  in  vain  to  claim  that  we  know 
nothing  of  Absolute  Being.  We  assert  for  our- 
selves some  knowledge  of  it  w'hen  we  affirm  that  it 
exists.  If,  then,  personality  is  denied  to  it,  that  is 
a  still  further  claim  to  knowledge  ;  for  on  wdiat  pos- 
sible ground  can  the  absence  of  personality  be  af- 
firmed of  a  Being,  of  whom  nothing  is  known  ?  It 
is,  however,  no  more  than  fair  to  notice  the  fact 
that  there  are  certain  grounds  upon  wdiich  the  per- 
sonality of  Absolute  Being  is  denied.  But  it  must 
be  remembered  that  the  whole  discussion  is  now 
transferred  to  the  realm  of  metaphysics,  and  the 
man  of  science  [\bandons  here  the  peculiar  prestige 
which  belongs  to  him  in  the  scientific  field.  From 
the  moment  that  he  penetrates  beyond  the  mole- 


EVOLUTION   AND   A   PERSONAL   CREATOR.     221 

eulc,  where  matter  vanishes  from  any  test  to  Avhicli 
lie  can  subject  it,  all  through  the  supposed  atom- 
ic constitution  of  matter,  back  to  Absolute  Being, 
he  is  traveling  in  the  realm  of  metaphysics.  In  the 
realm,  then,  of  metaphysics,  we  would  meet  this 
affirmation  of  nescience,  in  regard  to  Absolute  Be- 
ing, and  this  consequent  scepticism  as  to  its  person- 
ality. 

Since  there  is  nothing  in  mere  personality,  that  is, 
in  the  conscious  possession  of  intellect  and  will,  which 
is  inconsistent  with  Absolute  Being,  the  grounds  for 
its  denial  must  be  sought  indirectly  and  outside  of 
the  mere  existence  of  Absolute  Being.  It  is  accor- 
dingly affirmed  that  the  idea  of  Absolute  Being  ex- 
cludes all  relation,  and  that  therefore  we  can  not 
conceive  of  the  Absolute  Being  as  cause  and  the 
Universe  as  effect,  or  of  any  idea  of  Absolute  Be- 
ing, and  a  phenomenal  Universe,  except  the  pan- 
theistic idea — which  makes  God  to  be  all  things 
and  all  things  to  be  God.  This  position  overlooks 
the  distinction,  which  evidently  should  be  made, 
between  an  Absolute  Being,  which  can  not  hold  any 
^elation  to  a  phenomenal  Universe  and  an  Absolute 
Being,  which,  while  no  such  relation  necessarily  ex- 
ists, can  hold  it  at  its  will. 

It  is  conceivable  then,  that' Absolute  and  Uncon- 
ditioned Being  may  hold  relations  at  its  will.     It 


222     EVOLUTION  AND   A   PERSONAL   CREATOR.  • 

can  conceivably  project  an  object  of  whicli  it  is  the 
subject.  It  can  make  itself  the  Canse  of  which  the 
Universe  is  the  Effect.  Is  there,  then,  a  Personal 
Being  back  of  all  the  phenomena  of  l^ature  ?  I 
reply,  that  an  affirmative  is  at  least  as  reason-  ■ 
able,  by  the  admission  of  all,  as  a  negative  answer, 
and  that  since  a  voluntary  relativity  is  conceivable 
in  Absolute  Being,  there  are  such  indications  of 
reason  and  will  in  nature,  as  to  make  it  violently 
unreasonable  to  deny  that  the  rationality  of  the 
Universe  is  owing  to  the  will  of  a  rational  and  con- 
sequently personal  Absolute  Being. 

A  question  comes  up  at  this  point  in  the  discus- 
sion, which  it  is  important  for  us  to  consider.  Ab- 
solute Being  back  of  all  phenomena  is  admitted  in 
this  controversy  ;  but  although  much  is  affirmed  on 
one  side  as  well  as  the  other,  in  regard  to  it,  it  is 
claimed  that  "  it  is  something  which  lies  outside  of 
the  range  of  our  knowledge."  This  necessarily  sug- 
gests the  question,  what  knowledge  is  possible  to  us  ; 
whether,  in  other  words,  it  is  possible  for  us  to  know 
any  thing  otherwise  than  by  the  faculties  employed 
in  scientific  investigation.  I  can  not,  of  course,  en-  ^ 
ter  here  upon  the  discussion  of  so  great  a  subject. 
I  can  only  indicate  the  sure  and  safe  ground  which 
the  Christian  philosopher  can  take.  We  need  to 
take  our  stand  upon  the  higher  spiritual  philosoj^hy, 


EVOLUTION   AND   A   PERSONAL   CREATOR.     223 

that  of  Plato,  and  Leibnitz,  and  Kant,  and  Cole- 
ridge ;  affirming  the  distinction  between  the  reason 
and  the  imderstandinc:,  and  claimino-  an  intuitional 
poAvcr  in  reason  as  the  basis  of  our  higher  know- 
ledge. I  am  not  insensible  to  the  dangers  of  the 
transcendental  philosophy,  but  I  can  not  express  too 
strongly  my  sense  of  the  importance  of  familiarity, 
on  the  part,  especially  of  Christian  ministers,  Avith 
the  general  principles  of  the  ])hilosophy  of  the 
great  world-teachers  to  whom  I  have  referred. 
Blaise  Pascal  has  given  the  highest  expression  of 
this  philosophy,  in  a  wonderful  passage,  in  Avhicli 
he  says,  "  Divine  things  are  infinitely  above  na- 
ture, and  God  only  can  place  them  in  the  soul.  He 
has  designed  that  they  should  pass,  not  from  the 
head  into  the  heart,  but  from  the  heart  into  the  head. 
And  so,  as  it  is  necessary  to  know  human  things  in 
order  to  love  them,  it  is  necessary  to  love  divine 
things  in  order  to  know  them."  The  great  Dante 
also  has  beautifully  and  profoundly  stated  the  atti- 
tude of  this  philosophy  in  regard  to  the  knowledge 

of  God. 

"  Lumc  e  lassu  die  visibile  face 

Lo  creatore  a  quella  creatura — 

Clie  solo  in  lui  vedere  lia  la  sua  pace." 

"  There  is  above  a  light  which  makes  visible  the 
Creator  to  that  creature  who  finds  his  peace  only  in 
the  vision  of  Him." 


22i     EVOLUTION   AND   A    PERSONAL    CREATOR. 

Before  closing  what  I  liave  to  say,  there  are  one 
or  two  points  to  which  I  wish  for  a  moment  to  refer. 
I  have,  in  this  lecture,  placed  those  who  hold  the 
doctrine  of  Evolution,  in  the  position  of  those  who 
are  not  prepared  to  take  distinctively  Theistic 
ground.  This  I  have  done,  as  must  have  been  per- 
ceived, only  for  the  temporary  purposes  of  my  ar- 
gument. But  having  done  this,  I  feel  that  they 
ought  in  all  fairness  to  be  allowed  to  speak  for 
themselves  on  this  point,  and  I  therefore  cpiote  a 
passage  from  the  works  of  Mr.  Darwin,  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  representatives  of  this  school : 

"  There  is  a  grandeur  in  this  view  of  life,  with 
its  several  powers,  having  Ijeen  originally  breathed 
by  the  Creator  into  a  few  forms  or  into  one ;  and 
that,  whilst  this  planet  has  gone  cycling  on,  accord- 
ing to  the  iixed  law  of  gravity,  from  so  simple  a 
beginning,  endless  forms,  most  beautiful  and  most 
wonderful,  have  been  and  are  being  evolved." 

Another  point  to  which  I  would  refer  is  the 
charge  of  materialism,  which  is  made  very  general- 
ly against  men  of  science  at  the  present  day.  That 
there  aro  some,  especially  in  Germany,  who  are  just- 
ly chargeable  with  materialism,  in  the  worst  sense 
of  the  term,  I  have  no  doubt.  There  are  some 
l^robably  in  England  wlio  are  liable  to  the  same 
charge,  but  I  should  not  include  among  them  the 


EVOLUTION   AND   A    PERSONAL   CREATOR. 


t>25 


recognized  leaders  of  scientific  tliought.     The  scien- 
tific investigations  of  the  last  few  years  have  modi- 
fied the  character  of  materialistic  philosophy.     All 
scientific  men  at  the  present  day  believe  in  the  ato- 
mic constitution  of  Avliat  we  call  matter  ;  hut  so  far 
as  they  know— and  the  leaders  among  them  unhesi- 
tatiuo-ly  admit  it— the  ultimate   atoms   of    matter 
may  be  only  force-centres,  and  therefore  what  we 
understand  as  spiritual  entities.    I  am  not  insensible 
to  the  dangerous  character  of  prevalent  materialis- 
tic views  as  to  the  freedom  of  the  will  and  other 
closely  related  subjects  ;  but  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say 
that  the  materialism  of  which  I  have  just  spoken, 
that    which  indissolubly  associates  life    and  force 
with  what  we  call  matter,  and  which  is  as  ready  to 
express  the  facts  of  nature  in  terms  of  spirit  as  of 
matter,  is  not  a  dangerous  materialism,.-and  is,  just 
as  much  as  the  idealism  of  Bishop  Berkeley,  consis- 
tent with  the  Christian  faith. 

I  wish  also  to  say  that  in  whatever  concessions  I 
may  have  made  to  the  theory  of  evolution,  I  am  not 
to  be  understood  as  an  advocate  of  any  view  which 
separates  God,  at  any  moment,  from  the  phenome- 
nal universe.  The  idea  of  the  exercise  of  creative 
power,  at  the  initiation  of  each  species  of  life,  does 
exclude  God,  to  some  degree  certainly,  from  the 
intermediate  periods.     ^ly  view  recognizes  God  as 


226     EVOLUTION   AND    A    PERSONAL   CREATOR. 

tlie  First  Great  Cause,  and  beholds  His  working 
and  immediate  agency  in  every  minutest  change  in 
the  phenomenal  universe.  What  is  true  of  man 
is  true  of  all  existence  :  "  In  Him  we  live  and 
move  and  have  our  being.'' 

There  is  one  more  point  to  be  considered.  If 
there  is  such  a  process  of  evolution,  what  may  we 
anticipate  as  its  end  ?  Is  it  to  go  on  until  there 
are  beings  as  far  above  man  as  he  is  above  the 
lower  orders  of  animal  life  ?  In  answering  these 
questions,  we  shall  be  aided  by  what  is  a  scientific 
conception,  and  that  is,  that  if  the  phenomenal 
universe  has  proceeded  from  Absolute  Being,  to 
Absolute  Being  it  will  return.  But  this  is  just 
what  is  presented  to  us  in  the  fundamental  facts 
and  principles  of  the  Christian  faith.  The  tide 
of  being  wldch  has  flowed  from  God  and  cul- 
minated at  last  in  man,  must  return  to  God. 
This  it  does  in  the  Incarnation,  by  which  man  is 
united  to  God,  and  God  to  man.  The  circle  from 
Absolute  Being  back  to  Absolute  Being  is  complete. 
Those  who  are  familiar  with  nature,  and  see  how 
one  thino;  answers  to  another,  and  all  thinsjs  seek 
harmony,  and  symmetry,  and  completeness,  will  re- 
cognize the  presence  of  a  universal  law  in  this  link- 
ing together  of  man,  as  the  final  result  of  develop- 
ment, with  God,  in  Christ.     Christ  then  stands  as 


EVOLUTION  AND  A  PERSONAL  CREATOR.  227 

the  highest  aud  final  expression  of  this  evolution, 
evolved  from  the  bosom  of  humanity  and  yet  com- 
ing forth  also  from  the  being  of  God.  He  is  tlie 
highest  expression  of  which  the  process  is  capable. 
It  ends  with  Christ,  in  God. 

I  have  now  completed  the  manif estl}'^  difficult  and 
delicate  task  assigned  me.  Every  word  which  I  have 
spoken,  has  been  inspired  by  an  earnest  desire  to 
do  what  I  could  to  allay  apprehensions  which 
have  been  excited  by  the  supposed  attitude  of  Sci- 
ence toward  natural  and  revealed  religion.  If  the 
doctrine  of  successive  and  intermitted  acts  of  crea- 
tion should  finally  be  abandoned,  it  will  be  replac- 
ed by  a  far  higher  conception  of  God,  according  to 
which  every  phenomenal  change  depends  upon 
what  is  virtually  a  creative  act,  and  the  inconceiv- 
ably vast  development  of  ISTature  springs  forth  at 
every  point  of  space  and  every  moment  of  time, 
from  God.  The  last  thing  in  regard  to  which  any 
fear  need  be  entertained,  is  the  future  of  the  histo- 
rical faith  of  the  Christian  Church. 

A  poet  of  our  time  has  rej^resented  Christianity 
in  the  likeness  of  a  majestic  angel,  with  helmet  and 
sword,  vainly  attempting,  in  the  presence  of  the 
Sphinx,  to  answer  the  pro])lem  of  human  destiny. 
The  helmet  falls  from  her  head,  and  the  sword  from 
her  hand,  aud  she  stands  mute  and  powerless.    The 


228     EVOLUTION  AND   A  PERSONAL   CEEATOR. 

future,  we  may  rest  assured,  will  reverse  the  repre- 
sentation. Tlie  helmet  will  rest  upon  the  calm  and 
serene  brow  of  the  angel ;  the  sword  will  be  held 
in  her  invincible  hand,  and  the  answer  will  be  given 
which  solves  the  mystery  of  our  being.  Science 
has  reached  a  point  in  its  investigations,  where  it 
will  become  more  reverent.  The  Absolute  Being 
which  it  already  recognizes  will  be  seen  to  be  the 
personal  Creator  and  Governor  of  the  Universe. 
The  interpretation  of  ^Nature  will  be  more  tho- 
rough and  clear,  and  the  testimony  to  the  Infinite 
Being,  the  Moral  Governor  of  the  World,  will  be 
so  overwhelming  and  decisive  that  there  will  be  a 
universal  acknowledgment  that — 

"Eartli  with  lier  tliousand  voices  praises  God." 


The  foregoing  Lecture  was,  for  the  most  part,  un- 
written at  the  time  of  its  delivery,  and  it  Was  sug- 
gested to  me  by  some  of  my  friends,  for  whose  opin- 
ions I  have  the  highest  regard,  that  in  Avriting  out 
the  Lecture  for  publication,  I  might  have  the  oppor- 
tunity of  modifying  certain  positions  which  I  had 
assumed,  or  statements  I  had  made.  After  very  ma- 
ture consideration,  I  have  not  felt  at  liberty  to  do 
60.    It  seems  to  me  right  that  I  should  reproduce 


EVOLUTION  AND  A  PERSONAL  CKEATOK.  229 

the  Lecture,  as  far  as  possible,  from  phonographic 
reports  taken  at  the  time.  I  am  the  more  content 
to  do  so,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  I  can  not  consci- 
entiously modify  any  of  the  views  whieli  I  liavc 
expressed.  I  humbly  trust  that  they  may  be  use- 
ful to  the  great  cause  which  I  have  most  of  all  at 
heart.  If  I  am  mistaken  in  any  of  the  grounds 
which  I  have  taken,  I  am  most  anxious  that  it 
should  be  made  clear,  at  whatever  cost  to  myself, 
and  since  it  is  possible  that  I  may  have  erred  in  the 
concessions  which  have  seemed  to  me  to  be  due  to 
the  scientific  conclusions  of  the  present  age,  I  would 
ask,  in  all  humility,  if  this  should  be  the  case,  the 
forgiveness  of  the  Great  Being,  for  whose  glory  I 
have  earnestly  prayed  each  word  might  be  spoken. 


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ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY  OF  THE  NEW 
TESTAMENT.  A  Study  for  the  Present  Crisis  in  the 
Church  of  England.  By  the  Rev.  G.  A.  Jacob,  D.D.,  late 
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The  work  is  written  in  an  exceptionably  able  manner,  and  the  reputation  of  its 
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Although  strongly  attached  to  the  Church  of  Engbnd,  the  author  is  fully  alive 
to  the  necessity  of  Reform,  a  necessity  which  now  seems,  on  all  sides,  to  be  recog- 
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work  in  moulding  the  somewhat  chaotic  opinions  which  prevail  on  these  subjects 
in  our  Church. — Church  and  State. 

LIFE     LESSONS    FROM     THE     BOOK      OF 
PRO  VERBS.    By  Rev.  Williams  Stevens  Perry,  D.D. 
8vo,  cloth,  361  pages.     $1.75. 
Among  the  many  books  recertly  published  in  New- York,  f,e  call  special  atten- 
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the  enforcement  of  truth  and  morality. — Spirit  0/  Missions. 


UNITY  IN  VARIETY.  A  Series  of  Arguments  based 
on  the  Divine  Workmanship  in  our  Planet,  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  Human  Mind,  and  the  Inspired  History  ol 
Religion.  Bj'  George  Warburton  Weldon,  M.A.,  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge.     i6mo,  cloth,  230  pages.     $1.50. 

This  work  is  an  able  plea  for  the  broadest  Christian  brotherhood  and  charity. 
It  exhibits  true  Christian  unity.  Not  in  a  forced  external  uniformity  of  faith  ai.d 
worship,  but  in  a  spontaneous  approximation  of  different  lines  of  thought  and 
feehng  developed  by  individual  freedom  in  all  branches  of  the  Church. — iKojA- 
ittgton  Chronicle. 

It  is  the  result  of  careful  study,  of  deep  and  earnest  thought,  and  of  sound 
judgment.  There  is  a  vigor  in  the  style,  which,  in  these  times,  -vhen  exquisite 
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LADY  BETTY'S  GOVERNESS;  or,  The  Corbet 
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"  Winifred,"  "  Irish  Amy,"  "  Langham  Revels,"  etc.  i2mo, 
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It  professes  to  give  an  episode  in  the  life  of  a  clergyman's  daughter,  who  was 
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family.  The  scene  is  laid  in  England,  and  the  times  are  those  of  Charles  I.,  when 
Puritan  and  Prelate  were  entenng  upon  those  unhappy  struggles  which  under- 
mined the  foundations  of  both  Church  and  State.  The  sympathies  of  the  author 
are  with  such  men  as  good  Bishop  Hall,  who  appears  in  the  work ;  and  yet  she 
avoids  assuming  a  party  position,  and  deplores  the  .sad  extremes  into  which  both 
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THE  TRUE  MAUY.  Being  Mrs.  Browning's  Poem, 
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I  WOULD  NOT  LIVE  ALTVAY.  Evangelized,  by 
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EVANGELICAL    S  1ST Elt HOODS.      In   Two    Let- 

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The  author  has  a  way  of  going  down  to  the  root  of  things,  and  of  seeing  through 
shams,  both  in  society  and  in  ethics,  that  is  not  only  entertaining,  but  also  very 
effective. — The  Churchman, 

A  HOUSEHOLD  LITURGY;  or,  Order  of  Daily 
Prayer  for  Families.  By  Rev.  C.  S.  Henry,  D.D. 
Cloth.     Price,  50  cents. 

We  heartily  recommend  its  adoption  and  use  in  the  family.  Its  offices  are 
short.  No  companion  book  is  needed,  for  this  contains  Creed,  Hymns,  Psalms, 
and  Collects  as  well  as  Prayers.  It  will  be  found  suitable  for  all  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  men.  The  volume  is  a  brief  but  well  arranged  Manual  of  Devotions 
for  use  in  families. — The  Church  and  State. 

This  book  is  complete  in  itself,  not  requiring  the  use  of  any  other  book  for  the 
conduct  of  domestic  worship. —  The  Guardian. 

SHOSHIE:    The    Hindoo    Zenana    Teacher.      By 

Miss    Harriet    G.    Brittan,   Author   of  "  Kardoo,"   eic. 
i2mo,  cloth.     Price,  $1.25. 

The  Zenana  Mission  is  one  of  peculiar  interest,  and  the  pictures  of  home  life 
in  India  which  that  able  missionary.  Miss  Brittan,  has  drawn,  give  glimpses  of 
the  interior  of  heathenism  which  it  would  be  hard  otherwise  to  gain.  The  work 
is  handsomely  illustrated  — The  Register. 

The  most  entertaining  book  of  Hindoo  life  we  have  ever  read. — St.  Chrysostoin's 
Magazine, 

A  very  interesting  work,  showing  the  patient  labor  of  those  who  are  trying  to 
spread  the  religion  of  Jesus  in  the  dark  places  of  the  earth. — Home  atid  Abroad. 

WINIFRED ;  or.  After  Many  Days.     By  the  Author  of 
"  Lady  Bett}''s    Governess."     i2mo,  cloth,  pp.  335.     Price. 
$1.50. 
This  is  a  charming  i  tory  by  the  well-known  author,  Lucy  Ellen  Guernsey.     It 
is  a  story  of  Monmouth's  rebellion,   in  the  reign  of  Charles   II.   and   his   unfortu- 
nate broiher.     The  object  is  to  show  th:it  even   in   that   dark  period  of  England's 
history  there  were  to  be  found  shining  instances  of  devout  piety  and  virtue. 

T.    WHITTAKER, 

Publisher  and  Bookseller 

2  Bible  House,  New-Ycrk. 


